


Prove Our Worth

by LostinScribbles



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Minor cursing, Panic Attack, Post-Episode: Putting Others First - Selfishness v. Selflessness Redux | Sanders Sides, Sword Fighting, Sympathetic Deceit | Janus Sanders, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-08
Updated: 2020-12-29
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:33:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 48,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27456532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LostinScribbles/pseuds/LostinScribbles
Summary: The events of POF have left the Sides scrambled, confused, insecure, and neglected. A new seat has been offered to the deceiving snake, who apparently isn’t so bad after all? While Janus comes to terms with his acceptance, Roman is feeling more confused than ever. After having shut down the voice of reason once again, Patton is torn by an aching guilt and lingering panic. Meanwhile, an orange hue has seeped into the Mind Palace, making its way from room to room…
Comments: 41
Kudos: 70





	1. Knock on the Door

**Author's Note:**

> Thought this month's NaNoWriMo challenge might provide me with some needed motivation to get back into writing, so here is my first ever fanfic! Basically, it's a story following the events of POF. I'm still very new to this, so tips and comments are much appreciated! This fic is quite angsty and features Orange Juice as well. Hope you enjoy :)
> 
> PS I'll try and update the chapters every few days.
> 
> PPS Don't really know a lot about adding the correct tags yet. So please let me know in case there are some missing, that should be included!

“My name is Janus.”

Who would’ve thought those four simple words could be a catalyst for an already racing heartbeat, anxious anticipation, and self-doubt waiting to be dissipated by the approval of others? Janus had known that moment that he had to drop his manipulating façade and be as truthful as he could, in order to get through to Thomas. Because as he had experienced in the courtroom weeks before, first impressions and reputation are hard to shake off. No matter how honest and diligent you try to make your case.  
He could still vividly remember glancing around the room, which led to uncomfortable feelings he hoped he never had to face again. Then, the deafening silence was broken by the faux-prince’s laughter. Of course, should’ve seen it coming. Roman was already rooted deep into following Patton’s false sense of direction, including his habit of masking his pain with jokes. But something deep inside of Janus – something he had in common with Remus, and even formerly Virgil – urged him to snap back with a vengeance. 

“Roman, thank GOD you don’t have a moustache!”

Roman’s smile dropping from his face. Him hurriedly scanning the room for support, but getting none. Later, Janus would tell Patton that he was sorry for insulting Roman like that.  
But that was a lie.  
Though embarrassed thinking back on it now, he knows it felt good. Calling out the others for their weaknesses conversely imbued him with a sense of power. To be brutally honest, he didn’t even care at that point if the others would just turn on him again. ‘Cause that’s what they always have done.  
Surprisingly, they didn’t. The tables were turned. Roman was left on his own.  
Why didn’t this make him feel good, then? It would mean the ultimate victory, wouldn’t it? Another feeling in Janus’ chest burned up, something he couldn’t describe but felt intrinsically contradictory to his nature. The burning grew stronger and stronger as Roman uttered the infamous line.

“Thomas, I thought I was your hero…”

Before he knew it, his manipulative instincts were pressed down and he made a sincere nod in Roman’s direction. He could feel Patton’s gaze at the side of his face, both stinging and strangely comforting. But to no avail. Roman scoffed, getting more upset with each breath he took. He didn’t even seem to be speaking from his own interest anymore; just kept shouting out accusations that he didn’t even believe in. A state of confused panic which reminds Janus of-

No, don’t think about that.

After letting out a short sigh, Janus finishes the remainder of his wine with one gulp. Hard to swallow, and the all-familiar smooth taste doesn’t seem able to calm him down. He sets the glass down on the coffee table in front of the couch, and leans back. Resting his head back he raises his right hand against the ceiling, staring at the yellow fabric of his glove highlighted by the candle on his desk. His hand was still cold and tingling a little, like the sensation of putting on wet gloves soaked from the rain. Even though it felt naked taking the glove off after so long, it made him feel more truthful and sincere than ever. Ridiculously even to the point that it allowed him to utter his name.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hesitantly pacing in front of the door, Patton tries to take deep breaths and count to ten in order to calm himself down. Janus can’t see him entering like this. Well, he’d probably tell his bluff right away if he tried to hide it. So maybe it doesn’t even matter. No, it does. He isn’t the one who should be upset. So pull yourself together, pops!

Patton had tried knocking on Roman’s door, but he wouldn’t open. He didn’t even change his previous door sign yet, which still reads: “This prince is having a beauty nap!”. Patton could have tried to just open the door and go in, but the thought of Roman having possibly locked the door for him scared Patton too much to check. Even though Roman has never done that to him before, he wouldn’t want to find out now. Instead of surely awaiting more rejection or scorn from the others, Patton figured turning to Janus would be his best bet. They had a nice chat when Lee and Mary Lee came to visit, and Janus even apologized. Surely they could all talk about it together in the morning, and it’ll be okay in no time!  
…9, 10. Alright, going in. Patton raises his hand and knocks on Jan’s door. A few seconds of silence before Patton hears a voice from inside.  
“Yes?”

Patton gently opens the door and enters. And just as he does, he realizes he’s never seen Janus’ room before. Glancing around, he sees the walls covered with golden-yellow Victorian style wallpapers, an antique couch with a wooden coffee table in front of it and a beautiful mahogany desk on the left-hand side. Most noticeable is the old-fashioned record player, adorned with a vase of flowers and set up on a shelf of the expansive book case standing against the back wall.  
Janus is leaning forward on the couch, just putting back a bottle of wine from filling his wine glass. 

“Sorry Janus, didn’t mean to bother you!”  
“Oh I am deeply bothered,” Janus responds with a grin on his face. He glances beneath the coffee table and grabs another wine glass.  
“Care to join me? Don’t worry, it’s non-alcoholic.” As if instinctively, Patton reaches for the wine glass. Right before he does, he shakes his head and quickly pulls back his hand.  
“Ah, no. I’m good. Just a lil’ something I wanted to ask you,” he responds, brushing of Janus’ invite and taking a seat on the couch next to him.

“We should- I mean, I think it’s good if we all have a talk tomorrow. About what happened.”  
Janus takes a small sip from his wine, facing the snake side of his face away from Patton.  
“That didn’t sound like a question,” he says, shooting a glance at him.  
“Well, I think you must agree that we all said some things we shouldn’t have. And it’s best to just sit down with each other and talk it out, right?,” Patton argued, trying to sound confident. Judging from Janus’ expression, he wasn’t doing a great job faking it.  
“I’m not saying you should do anything, but…” Defeated, Patton looks down. Fiddling with the sleeves of his cardigan, he takes a breath and carefully considers how to put his doubts into words.  
“I don’t know what I can do.”  
Patton notices he utters that sentence a lot more solemn than he meant to, which is picked up by Janus who puts down his wine glass and turns his head towards him.  
“They’re probably all still mad at me…,” Patton continues,“…and they have the right to. I just don’t think I can face them right now. They won’t listen to me, even if I’ll tell them I just want to talk.”

Janus scoffs. “Wow, some trust you place in your friends, eh?”  
Patton clenches his fists, grabbing his cardigan’s sleeves firmly between his fingers. As the only source of light, the bright burning candle on the desk fills the room with a yellow-orange hue.  
“I’ll go and get them tomorrow, then,” Janus says resolutely. “In case they won’t listen.” The sleeves fall away from Patton’s grip, and he feels a weight dropping from his shoulders which he has been strenuously holding up to his neck until now.  
“Thank you,” is all Patton manages to tell Janus while keeping a straight face. He may have misinterpreted it, but he could swear he saw Janus faintly smiling in response.

“However, there is a minimal chance it could be a heated discussion tomorrow,” Janus adds, raising himself from the couch and walking around the coffee table. “So prepare yourself for that.”  
“Yeah, I will,” Patton answers, following suit and walking with Janus to the door. Standing in the doorway, Patton remembers something and turns towards Janus again.  
“Oh, it could be that some of their doors will be locked for you though-”  
“That won’t be a problem,” Janus responds, dashing his ever-familiar devious grin at Patton. Though still a bit worried, he walks out of his room ready to head towards his own. “Good night,” he calls back to Janus, realizing a little too late he’s supposed to stay quiet as to not wake the others. Embarrassed he hurriedly tiptoes back towards his room, trying to reassure himself they probably didn’t hear him.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Good night.”  
As Roman hears the familiar and awfully chipper voice through his door, he can’t help but bite his lip. Of course Patton would pretend nothing happened, carrying on his cheerful charade as always. Bet he’s just finished gossiping about him with… Deceit. Since those two are all buddy-buddy now. Roman lets out a long sigh and stretches his back against the door. He’s been sitting there for the last, God knows how long. Maybe he’ll just fall asleep here, what would they care? It’s his room. Come to think of it…  
Sluggishly getting back to his feet, Roman walks up to his desk and grabs a hold of his collection of door signs. About time he got rid of these actually, they all look so childish and amateur. He finds himself wondering why he even proudly hanged these on his door to begin with. Well, whatever. It’ll keep them all at bay for the time being, hopefully. As he mindlessly flips through the signs while pacing around the room, Roman’s eyes drift towards the full-length mirror next to the dresser. Out of habit he thoroughly scans himself from top to bottom, which only leaves him feeling more disgusted with himself. Looking down at the signs, he finds the one that says “Plebs off limits, or face the fury equal to that of the dragon witch!”. He scoffs; so stupid. Maybe he should just lock-

"Hey there, little brother."

Just another glance in the mirror is enough to make Roman freeze up. HE is grinning back at him, Morningstar resting on his shoulder. Holding up his left hand in a mocking pose. But that isn’t the most unsettling part. Roman was expecting those maddening green eyes looking back at him, when he locked his gaze with his reflection’s. But the eyes are dyed in deep red.  
Loud knocks snap him out of it, which makes him drop the door signs on the floor. Roman immediately turns his head away from the mirror, feeling his heartbeat going wild in his chest. While trying to control his breathing, he almost thinks he’s started going crazy when a voice suddenly speaks up from behind the door.

“Hey, you there?”  
After a few seconds, he manages to collect himself. Never imagined the most anxious Side he knows would be the most comforting to listen to. Though still shaken up, Roman clears his throat and calls out through the door.  
“What is it?”  
“Are you good? I mean… can I come in?” Virgil stutters a little as he speaks, but manages to keep his voice calm and inquisitive. Almost enough for Roman to reach out to the doorknob. Almost.  
“Well, I’m fine so… There’s no need. Should you be keeping Thomas up this late anyway?”

As a way to distract himself, he kneels down to pick up the door sign he dropped along with the others. After getting back up however, Roman finds himself unconsciously walking towards the door anyway. Only moments later, he’s greeted with Virgil opening the door before him. He looks surprisingly stern, or at least he’s trying to. Virgil always seems to put up this cute frown whenever he wants to get serious.  
“I’m serious. Are you okay?” Roman lets out a small chuckle and looks down.   
“Like I said, I am fine. Now please, I was just about to-”

“It’s alright if you’re not, you know,” Virgil buts in, trying to catch Roman’s gaze but ultimately looking down too. Rubbing his hand against the back of his neck, Virgil repositions himself straight and removes his other hand from his pocket. “Look, I don’t know how it all went down or what he might have said. But whatever it was, don’t listen to it. Believe me, Deceit is nothing but a dirty liar. He just managed to manipulate Thomas for one time, and we can talk him out of it! I don’t care what Patton or anyone says, I’m with you here. Alright?”  
Quite unlike him, Virgil firmly grabs hold of Roman’s sleeve.  
“It’s gonna be fine. Let’s just-”  
“It’s no use,” Roman responds, breaking Virgil off. Regrettably he isn’t able to hide the resignation in his voice.  
“But-”

Roman brushes Virgil’s hand off his arm, steps out of his room and reaches to remove the sign still hanging on his door. Virgil takes a step back just enough to let Roman pass, but doesn’t leave any extra room for him to get away.   
“You should really get to bed, Hot Topic. Or you’re going to need a lot more eyeshadow to hide those bags under your eyes!” Roman jokingly remarks, hanging the other door sign he was holding in place.  
“Roman,” Virgil calls out to him again, which leaves Roman lingering in the doorway for a mere second.  
“You don’t need to worry, Virge,” Roman tries to reassure him, forcing the best smile he could manage while his throat starts to get dry.  
Closing the door behind him, he covers his mouth as to not alarm Virgil. Only when he hears his footsteps fading away, does he lean back against the door once again. As Roman feels his eyes get watery and clenches his teeth, the bright lights in his room slowly dim till they emit an off shade of orange.


	2. Confrontation

By the time the hands of the clock finally point to 10 on the dot, Virgil’s already wide awake. He’s been staring at the spider webs on the ceiling for the last hour, if not more. His attempts to go back to sleep were no use, as he kept mulling over his conversation with Roman last night. He got the gist of what happened after the wedding and wanted to clarify with Patton afterwards, if it wasn’t for that lying prick. He needs to speak to Patton alone, so Deceit has no means of getting in his head any more than he already has.

Luckily it’s 10 AM, so he can finally get out of his room and start looking for answers. Virgil’s made an agreement with Thomas a while back that he’d try to let him get some rest until 10 in the morning, at least. Which means he should stay in his room till then. Though Virgil hasn’t always been able to uphold his end of the deal, he really felt obligated to try his best anyway after the whole ordeal with the Duke. Sitting up from his bed, Virgil takes a few minutes to think through his options. As much as it pains him, he’d better leave Roman be for now. All night spent worrying about him did neither of them any good, and Roman’ll just end up evading the issue anyway. Mostly he tends to come around if you give him a bit of time, so Virgil’s just hoping it will be the same this time. 

It won’t.  
No, it will!  
Don’t start panicking now, what are his other options?

Though he should talk to Patton, Virgil really doesn’t feel like getting involved with him and most likely Deceit first thing in the morning. Perhaps it’s best to get some concrete proof of what happened, and turn to the others afterwards. Which leaves only one Side to turn to.  
Similarly to him though, Logan might not have gotten the full picture of the situation either. Moral dilemmas like this aren’t really his cup of tea, after all. But out of all of them, Virgil would be most comfortable talking to him. Given he’s pretty grounded and assesses problems rationally, Logan’s most likely to provide some actually helpful arguments to shut down Deceit. He did a pretty awesome job facing off against the Duke, and Deceit also seems to want to keep Logan at bay for fear of getting thrown out, no doubt.  
Yeah, talk to Logan. Don’t need to worry about what to say, he’s gonna do the most talking anyway.

After stretching his arms and back a few times, Virgil grabs his hoodie from the chair near his bed and heads to the door. Putting his arms through the sleeves, he glances around his room one final time and his eyes land on the Nightmare Before Christmas poster above his dresser.  
Maybe he’ll just give that one to Roman later after all, if it could cheer him up. He puts his hand on the door handle to open it, but his muscles make him retreat it almost immediately.  
“Ow! What the…”  
His hand is red and burning up, like he just touched a hot roster in the oven. Shaking his hand from the pain, Virgil takes a look at the handle which seems almost like a piece of glowing metal. By the time he blinks to look at it again however, the handle has stopped glowing and the ache in his hand quickly subsides. Wondering if it’s just his imagination, Virgil opens the door and exits his room. 

Tucking his hands deeper in his pockets, he notices his hands are firmly holding onto loose pieces of fabric and he hears his heartbeats faster than usual. Why is he so anxious now? Heading down the hallway, he looks down at his feet and tries to focus on that breathing exercise.  
Breath in for four.  
Hold it for seven.  
1, 2, 3…

Just as Virgil reaches around the corner, the back of a figure down the hall makes him completely lose concentration. With a short puff he breaths out, leading his breathing to start accelerating. He’d recognize that hat and cape from a mile away.  
With a sudden surge of blood running through his veins, he feels his hands tensing up again. A sort of tunnel vision overwhelms him, arms begin shaking, leg muscles getting him ready to sprint. Before he can even acknowledge his inner anxiety telling him to stop, he finds himself lunging at Deceit at full speed. By the time Virgil feels like he regains his vision, he has Deceit pinned against the wall. His right arm up against Deceit’s throat, and his left restraining the snake’s right arm with as firm a grip as he could manage.

“Good morning to you too, Virgil,” Deceit grunts, clearly taken aback by the amount of force he’s using.

“What did you do?!” Virgil yells with a considerable amount of volume he doesn’t normally use, immediately making his own throat ache.  
“I don’t know what you’re talking about-” Without wasting another second on the snake’s excuses, Virgil tightens his grip and pushes Deceit against the wall with even more force.  
“Don’t mess with me! What did you say to Roman?!” By simply mentioning his name, Virgil feels the inner turmoil rising up again. Flashes of Roman’s defeated demeanor and fake smile make his blood boil all the more viciously. Deceit starts struggling back, grabbing hold of Virgil’s right arm with the hand that was still free. Like nails piercing through his glove, Deceit firmly digs his fingers into Virgil’s arm and tries to pull it back from his throat.  
“You and I both know… that something like this… was bound to happen,” Deceit says with some needed effort.  
“I just gave him a little nudge.”  
“You’re playing your frickin’ mind games again! Trying to manipulate your way into Thomas trusting you, hurting everyone in the best way you know how just because it makes you feel good, huh?!” The more he yells, the more Virgil’s vision begins to blur. It’s like seeing a yellow aura of sorts, formed around Deceit’s entire figure. Gradually it’s fading into a violently bright shade of orange. He can’t even notice that he’s close to hyperventilating, and that the muscles in his arms are about to give out. It was then that Deceit’s pained expression suddenly vanishes from his face, like he’s been reset.

“Oh Virgil, you know me too well.”

Deceit now has an uncharacteristically lower tone of voice, tilting his head and smiling at Virgil mockingly. In a swift movement he twists his right arm free from Virgil’s grip against the wall, and now grabs hold of Virgil’s arm instead. With all power he’s got left in his arm, Virgil vehemently tries push back.  
“I won’t allow you to go anywhere near them again,” he now growls in the snickering snake’s face.  
“You might have convinced Thomas into accepting you for now, but you’ll *never* be one of us!”  
Deceit laughs.  
“Oh, ‘us’?!”

By now he’s managed to push back Virgil’s left arm far enough to lean in closer to Virgil’s face, staring him straight in the eyes with a wide-eyed expression and an almost devilish grin from ear to ear.  
“If you truly believe that I won’t, then that means *you* have never been one of them either. HAVE YOU?”  
Before he knew it, Virgil is mustering up the last remaining strength in his right arm to swing his fist in Deceit’s direction.  
“SHUT UP!”

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Stop!”

Just in time. If Patton had opened his mouth a second later, things would have gotten really bad. Not that they haven’t already. Much to his embarrassment, Patton felt frozen to the ground for the last few seconds, trying to process what was happening. Luckily he spoke up instinctively before his mind was ready to.  
Virgil’s fist is hanging only inches away from Janus’ face. Janus in turn was holding his eyes shut, and only just opens them slightly to find himself staring at Patton.  
“Virgil, let him go.”  
Patton is relieved he didn’t need too much effort to switch to his stern voice. In a second he was able to change his demeanor to a more authorative one, ready to tell those two troublemakers to lay off.  
“But he-”  
“Step back. NOW.”

Repressing his shaky voice the best he can, Patton gestures towards Virgil to back away. To his relief Virgil complies, be it unwillingly. As Janus is released from Virgil’s grip, he coughs and takes a few deep breaths. Virgil accordingly rolls his eyes and scoffs. As he walks up to them, Patton consciously maintains his composure and keeps his arms at his sides to prevent them from shaking even more. Virgil looks away dejectedly, arms crossed and puffing every now and then – Patton even spots that his eyes are a bit red. Janus is considerably wobbly; as he repositions himself he occasionally leans back against the wall. Patton would even say he appears vulnerable, which is rare for Janus.

“Now, explain to me what in the world happened here,” Patton demands firmly, looking at Virgil. 

He gives Patton an offended look.  
“So you’re blaming me again, are you? Weren’t you all about doing and being good? Then why the hell are you associating yourself with this evil piece of-”  
“Virgil, I understand that you must be confused after… Listen, you weren’t there, but Janus actually made some good contributions so Thomas could-” Virgil wildly grabs his hoodie and pulls it over his head, almost ripping the seams.  
“This is ridiculous! You were the one attacking Deceit in the courtroom! You made a whole case on the fact that Thomas should support his friends! What’s with this constant back-and-forth that you do? You should’ve had Roman’s back!” The words and sentences coming from Virgil’s mouth continue to slur together, faster and faster. He’s getting angrier and angrier. Patton hears Virgil’s voice breaking in the process, and it makes it increasingly harder not to console him and apologize. 

But no, this time he needs to be resolute.  
Patton takes a quick breath, fighting back his own tears. 

“Roman is just confused. We all need to sit down and-”  
“NO! You don’t get it, do you?” Virgil screams in Patton’s face, after which he shoots a resentful look at Janus. Now that he finally seems to have regained his composure, Janus pushes himself away from the wall and gives Virgil a firm look of his own.  
“Throwing a hissy fit isn’t going to help anyone, Virgil. We’re trying to fix things here.”  
“Fix things? Don’t try to fool me! It might have worked on him, but you can’t get to me anymore!”  
At a loss of what to do, Patton reaches out and grabs Virgil’s hand. It feels hot and sweaty. Restraining his force, he softly pinches his hand and calls out to him.  
“Please kiddo, it’s gonna be okay. If we can just talk…”  
“I don’t want to talk to you!” he responds adamantly, and aggressively pulls back his hand. Without making eye contact Virgil turns away from Patton, leaving him with what feels like a gaping hole in his heart. The heated tension in the air has made way for a solemn and lonely one, that feels even heavier on Patton’s shoulders than the one of the night before. As he walks away, Virgil snaps his head sideways for one final remark without looking at either of them.

“I hate you.”

If Patton didn’t already know what it feels like to have the world crumbling beneath your feet, he does now. His mind goes completely blank as he watches Virgil’s silhouette walk around the corner and disappear. It doesn’t take long for his throat to get dry and his shaking to start up again.  
“He didn’t mean that.”  
Patton recognizes what words Janus is saying, but doesn’t process them. All he can think about is…

“…this is all my fault.”

He feels Janus looking at him, but doesn’t care to turn his way. What was that counting exercise again? Gosh, he really should pay attention to what Logan is saying.  
“… it from here?” A sudden voice from Patton’s right. Did Janus ask him something? It doesn’t matter, this is his own issue to resolve anyway. He should stop dragging everyone else- 

“Janus, did you check any of the locks?”  
Just like that Patton spoke without thinking, taking not only himself but Janus by surprise as well.  
“Well, I was going to. Until someone tried to choke me,” Janus says with a slight scorn in his voice.  
Taking another breath, Patton tries to collect his thoughts. Virgil isn’t going to listen, so there’s no point trying to talk to him for now. And he catches on when Janus is in disguise pretty quickly. He could leave Roman to Janus, since he can easily remove the lock if there was any and convince Roman as Patton to come with him. It’d be easier to get Virgil on board that way too.

…Wait, what is he doing?

Patton shakes his head. He shouldn’t think like this. Don’t bother people any more than necessary. Perhaps… Logan? He hasn’t spoken to him yet, maybe he’s willing to listen.  
“Patton, are you listening?” Suddenly Patton finds himself snapped back into reality, awoken by Janus snapping his fingers in front of his face.  
“Ah sorry! I think I’ll actually be okay on my own. You don’t need to help anymore,” Patton quickly thinks of as an excuse, and immediately heads towards Logan’s room at the other end of the hall.  
“Come on, don’t tell me you came to ask my help for nothing,” Janus dejectedly sighs. Before leaving Janus out of sight completely, Patton musters up the courage to turn around one more time.  
“I’m sorry, but I should really fix this by myself!” Without a second thought, he turns around and heads for Logan’s room at a decent pace. Fast enough so his legs wouldn’t allow him to change his mind.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Astronomy.  
Black’s Law Dictionary.  
Chemical Engineering.  
Sherlock Holmes.  
Quite a collection he’s got stalled here.  
A desk lamp positioned just right above his laptop.  
No sign of coffee stains.  
Drawers categorized neatly according to the type of office equipment.  
Oh, what’s this? “A Sherlock and Logan screenplay”? Pfft. Pretty childish for a Side who claims to be all business and no play.  
Dresser is as organized as expected, pants and blouses and shoes all got their own little nook.  
But what do we have here? Oh dear Logan, no. A onesie? I can’t believe you’ve fallen so low.  
Let’s take this out. Such an eyesore.  
But I have to admit, this desk chair is one to beat. Some comfort, I might never want to get up. No wonder he’s holed up in his room all day. It’s all a bother anyway, with these idiots. Isn’t that right, Logan?  
Oh dear, a knock on the door. I wonder who it would be. Just kidding, they’re all so predictable.

“Logan, are you in here…?”

There he comes, slowly sneaks in like a creep.  
Bet he isn’t even going to notice in this dark, watch.

“I need to talk to you about something. I know I haven’t been listening to you as well as I should…”

You can say that again, hypocrite. And see? Hasn’t noticed a thing. Don’t mind me, just working and sitting in this chair like always. Being smart and wearing a necktie!

“…but I think it would be good if we all had a good talk about it all. Don’t you think? Please?”

Yes, beg some more. Why don’t you.

“I really need your help, Logan. I don’t know what to do, I… I messed it all up…”

You sure did.

“Can you help me? I’ll make it up to you.”

Alright, guess that’ll do for now. I’m getting annoyed.  
Let’s turn this chair around and light a candle.

“…Wait. What… who are you? What are you doing here?”

Look at him cowering, backing away. Am I really that intimidating, I wonder? I hope so.  
“Hello there, Patton. Long time no see.”

“Where is Logan? What did you do?”

I need to get closer. Get him freaked out some more. I’ll just untie his necktie and throw it over my shoulder, for the fun of it. See, he just freezes up.  
“I’m sorry. I’m afraid Logan is currently… unavailable.”


	3. Make Up Your Mind

Not that he is genuinely worried or anything, but Janus couldn’t help but notice Patton’s erratic behavior after Virgil left. He even tried to offer his help, snap him out of it. It seemed like he was possessed by something. During his little rant where he was mumbling to himself about what to do, Patton seemed to have a certain glare in his eyes that Janus wasn’t familiar to. Of course, he is now well aware of the look Patton gives when panicking, to the point of transforming into a bloody frog. But this look was different. Transfixed, lifeless, and yet obsessed. And Janus could swear he saw a hint of an orange circle around his irises.  
Nevertheless, it has left him silently watching Patton’s back as he walks away. Consequently he’s been lost in thought about the strange aura he’s been feeling around the Mind Palace lately. Especially in the rooms’ corridor. Which leads Janus to think back on his confrontation with Virgil. 

“I won’t allow you to go anywhere near them again.”  
“SHUT UP!”

He’s seen Virgil frustrated at him before, multiple times. Without meaning to brag of course, Janus likes to think he has a pretty good understanding of what makes Virgil tick. However, he’s hardly ever seen that look in his eyes.  
Though he tends to make plenty of accusations based on emotions or instinct, Virgil isn’t one to make arguments completely devoid of reason. His clinging to Logan as of late may have been the cause of that. This time he felt a certain malicious intent hidden behind Virgil’s threats, almost reminiscent of his old self but worse.  
There is something going on. Despite having his curiosity peaked, a primal sensation inside Janus almost appears to be telling him to just let it slide and allow the conflict to grow. That for some reason, it’s against his best interest to fix whatever is off. 

No, he shouldn’t let those instincts cloud his judgement.  
Just remember what he felt when Thomas backed him up.  
He trusts him now; he lets him be heard. 

In an effort to keep a clear head, Janus takes off towards Roman’s room which he intended to visit first. It’s a risky move; Roman will undoubtedly be more on edge and aware of him and his disguises. But for some reason, Janus felt compelled to have a talk with him anyway. This weird concern towards Roman must simply be a misplaced sense of guilt, surely. He simply owes Patton a favor, that’s all there is to it.  
Right before the door, Janus takes a few quick glances across his shoulders to make sure he’s alone. Before shapeshifting he notices the sign hanging from Roman’s door: “Plebs off limits, or face the fury equal to that of the dragon witch!”. Some nostalgia, or whatever it was, causes him to chuckle a little at the colorful but loud sign. Didn’t Virgil used to hang these up, as well? 

Shaking the odd memory from his mind, with a snap of his fingers, Janus transforms himself into Patton. It’s been a while since he’s played as him. He knows he should be careful not to exaggerate.  
Taking a deep breath, he knocks on the door.  
“Roman? Are you in there, kiddo?”  
No answer.  
As Janus reaches for the door handle, he’s surprised to find the door already ajar and opening without much effort. So he didn’t lock it, after all.  
Upon entering Janus immediately shields his vision with his hand, expecting dashing rays of bright lights to shine in his face. Since these Light guys seem to like ruining their eyesight every time they enter their rooms. To his surprise, the room’s lights are dimmed down, flickering every now and then. Slowly adjusting to the lighting, Janus takes a look around the room. All of a sudden, he finds this previously hardly noticeable feeling of unease proliferate through his entire body.

Roman’s elaborate wooden desk appears to be thoroughly sliced in half, the main frame broken in the middle and fallen to the floor in a V formation. Numerous pencils, notebooks, drawings, and picture frames are scattered across the carpet. Shards of broken glass lead to the full-length mirror in the corner, which is shattered into dozens of pieces.  
Oozing along the rims of the broken mirror, is a dense orange hue gradually sliding down across the floor to fill every corner of the room. As if on cue, Janus holds in his breath as to not inhale any of the substance. 

His hunch was correct after all.  
And this means it has managed to infiltrate further into the Mind Palace than he thought.  
He knows he has to put a stop to this.  
But the scent, it’s so alluring. Like it could provide him with the strength necessary to yield all the strings as he did before. Back in a time when things were simpler.  
What’s different now though, is his awareness that the one behind this is pulling the same tricks he used to love using himself. Manipulation and false promises, that eventually do more harm than good. He wouldn’t have come to that realization if it wasn’t for…

Call it guilt, call it righteousness, call it cowardice.  
In seconds Janus pulls himself away from the hue, dropping his disguise and escaping the room as fast as he could. This newfound sentiment in him might allow Janus get rid of whatever it is that is making him feel so uneasy.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Hello there, Patton. Long time no see.”  
As soon as the candle light started flickering on the Side’s face, Patton realized this definitely isn’t Logan. He is holding the candleholder with one hand, while using the other to adjust his necktie.  
No, Logan’s necktie. 

“Where is Logan? What did you do?” are the only words Patton manages to get across to him. He’s started shaking uncontrollably again, he feels almost paralyzed. But yet again, similarly like any move he makes towards him might have catastrophic consequences.  
The Side gets up from Logan’s chair, and starts methodically moving towards Patton. With clear precision and accuracy – like he’s done this countless times before – he unties the necktie with one hand and confidently whips it over his shoulder. He’s done nothing but grinning, staring Patton dead in the eyes, the orange highlights in his hair swaying along with his footsteps. 

“I’m sorry,” he responds, feigning sympathy. “I’m afraid Logan is currently… unavailable.”

A chill runs down Patton’s spine. He should’ve realized sooner to keep an eye out for this guy after the argument. Now Patton’s just been enabling him, more than he would’ve ever intended. The signs were there, for goodness’ sake! Maybe Patton himself has already been under his spell for too long to notice any of them. Mustering up the last remaining courage he has left, while trying to control those chaotic urges suddenly stirring inside him, Patton talks back to him.

“What do you mean, ‘unavailable’? Where is he?!”  
In a flash, the smug grin disappears from the orange Side’s face. His eyes now menacing, filled with pure hatred which silences Patton instantly.

“Honestly, I’m surprised you care.”  
He throws the necktie on the ground and pushes Patton against his shoulder forcefully. He falls back against the door, which immediately closes shut. Still alone in a pitch black room, it seems like the whole Mind Palace has vanished apart from them and the flickering flames of the candle between them.  
“You didn’t really hesitate to shut him down as soon as you had the chance. But that’s what you always do, isn’t it? Just shut them all down when they aren’t agreeing with you. Because as Morality you are always right, aren’t you?”

As the orange Side speaks, he moves his face closer and closer to Patton’s. The dark expression on his face darkens with every word, until Patton feels he’s about to get engulfed in it. He’d think all he’d feel is fear. But there is something, right in his chest that’s screaming for Patton to join him. To just engage with the chaos. To stop thinking.  
What he’s saying, it’s all true after all. And it hurts to hear it. But still…  
“N-No, that’s not true. I just wanted to help-”

“LIAR!!!” 

The candle’s flame bursts into a wildfire. The Side’s scream echoes throughout the entire room, ringing into Patton’s ears with the force of an explosion. He covers them up instinctively and forced his eyes shut, feeling a few hairs of his bangs getting burned away from the fire. He wouldn’t even dare to look the Orange fiend in the eye.  
Luckily, as quickly as the outburst came, it is gone. The warmth from the candle rekindles back to normal, and Patton slowly opens his eyes again. Far from what he was expecting, the orange Side sheepishly looks at Patton and giggles to himself.  
“Oh I see. He’s slithered his way into your heart huh? An unlikely couple.”

Patton returns his gaze with a quizzical look. He’s managed to get one of his hands on the doorhandle without him noticing, as he’s now turning away from Patton and idling back to the desk.  
However, his hand doesn’t seem to be able to move anytime soon. He does feel himself getting annoyed, like he’s not being taken seriously.  
“But on a more serious note…”

The orange Side turns towards Patton again, now leaning against the desk and placing the candle down. He tilts his head a little, resting his chin in his hand.  
“You could actually prove yourself quite useful for once, Patton.”  
Without thinking – perhaps it has something to do with Orange’s alluring tone of voice – Patton lets go of the doorhandle and cautiously approaches him. He doesn’t even notice the glowing chains surreptitiously wriggling around on the floor.  
“Sometimes, to get through to someone…”  
The chains are now rising, up to Patton’s waist and circling around his arms.  
“…you have to use a little force.”

With a snap of his fingers, the chains instantly wrap themselves tightly around both of Patton’s arms and accordingly pull them down towards the ground. Now unable to move, Patton realizes he’s standing face to face with his own worst enemy more than anything. And on top of that, too vulnerable to stand a chance against him. The Side once again snickers in his face, the candle’s flame slowly dimming until it will leave nothing but darkness.

“Just have some faith in your good old friend Jules, and I’ll make sure to make things right.”

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Screaming along at the top of his lungs, Remus is wielding his Morningstar as a microphone while My Chemical Romance is blaring in the background. No better way to get up in the morning, destroying your ear drums and voice at the same time!  
Honestly, this time he’s going at even more energy because he’s been forced to stay in his room for what feels like an eternity. Whatever exciting discussion the rest of them were having after the wedding, Jan clearly didn’t want him to play any part in it. Which is bull, because he definitely invited him to meet Thomas and interact with him more a while ago.

Already growing tired of the same songs, Remus grabs a firm hold of his weapon and slams his radio to bits. Normally destruction is always a good way to calm him down, but now he’s still feeling restless. There’s this jittery feeling he hasn’t been able to shake off since last night, not that he was really planning to sleep anyway. But it was distracting enough to have him bouncing around the room for the last couple of hours.

Feeling a wave of exhaustion suddenly hitting hard, Remus falls back face down on his bed. As messed up as his sleeping schedule can get, laying down on the soft matrass while resting his head on the collection of pillows never fails to rejuvenate him somehow. As always, the room’s lighting is obscured by the bed frame above him. Whenever he can’t get to sleep, climbing up and down the bunk bed is fun exercise to keep him busy. Plus, it prevents him from getting bored from sleeping in the same bed every night. 

With his right cheek supported on the head of his octopus plushy, Remus finds himself staring at the drawings pasted on the wall besides the bed. A lot of ‘em very old, childish drawings featuring some fun and graphic fantasies he used to have. So innocent and lame, compared to now. Snorting at the pictures, his face pouts a little when he lays his eyes on the drawing in the centre.  
It features a grand castle, adorned by both red and green flags and countless other decorations. Two dragons are flying in the background, and in front of the gate – that’s separated from the mainland by a long moat of water – are two little knights with their swords crossed against each other. A lot of the drawing was still unfinished, aside from some outlines and recognizable color pallets. Not even faces. It was the last drawing Remus held onto that the two of them actually made together, many years ago. During a time they still willfully shared the Imagination space. He doesn’t even know why he keeps it hung up. It’s a thing of the past anyway; he’s not exactly the sentimental type. To top it off, it’s f*cking ugly. 

Letting out a frustrated sigh, Remus rolls over on his back and stares at the bed frame above him instead. Though this also makes him feel weird. Ugh. He lets out a loud yell and gives a strong punch against the frame above him. Much better. Maybe some sleep for a few hours is what he needs, to get rid of those weird and jittery feelings. Right as he’s about to close his eyes, there’s some scratching noises entering his right ear.  
Gotta be the rats. Crawling through the walls to keep him company, the little bastards. He grabs a small hammer from his pocket, ready to bust another whole in the wall to see how his little rodents friends are-

It’s the drawing.  
With no pencil in sight, it appears something’s being scratched onto it.  
Or rather, scratched out.  
Red pencil lines are slowly but surely being drawn over the two small knights, first methodically but gradually growing more haphazard and chaotic.  
They’re being erased. 

As if his muscles knew, Remus slams his right hand on the drawing in order to cover up the scratches. For the first time in a long while, his heart is racing in a way that makes him feel vulnerable. Which is completely ridiculous, ‘cause it’s just a drawing. Nothing can hurt him in here. He’s just imagining things again, for sure. He tends to conjure random things like this, why would now be any different?  
Slowly he releases his hand from the drawing.

Only to find both of the knights have been completely erased by the invisible red pencil.  
Orange pencil marks are now etched into it, creating another outline for a single knight in the centre.  
Stretching his sword towards the ground.  
Eyes scratched in black. 

Remus can do nothing but stare at it, with mixed feelings of morbid curiosity and fearful disbelief.  
He feels a sharp pain across his forehead, usually a signal whenever Roman enters the Imagination space. But this one feels considerably more painful.  
Just like that, a sort of premonition that an imminent threat is coming his way. Like Logan rebutting his contributions, but much stronger. He’d even call it bloodlust. Remus isn’t one to scare easily. But this, whatever it is, certainly creeped him out more than he wants to admit. He gets out from the bed and approaches the door, Morningstar in hand. 

“Don’t you be playing a trick on me, Roman! You know I’m just gonna hit back thrice as hard!” he yells through the door, though getting no response. 

Placing his hand on the doorhandle, he realizes too late the handle is burning hot. Worse yet, it’s glowing red like a pipe just dipped in lava. He immediately pulls back his hand, which as a result sends surges of not only pain but all those jittery feelings back through his veins more forcefully than before.

Smash the door.  
Don’t!  
Just destroy it, it’ll feel good!  
It could kill you.  
So what?!  
Something’s up with Roman.  
Who cares?

All this chaos, which he usually thrives on, but now it leaves him paralyzed. Like his whole being is getting ready to charge. Remus grins widely, fixing his eyes on the door. The door is oozing an orange hue, infiltrating his room including every nook and cranny until he’s forced to inhale.


	4. Facing Your Demons

Before Janus even sets foot in the Imagination space, it’s already crystal clear to him what Roman is intending to do. Watching him from a safe distance, Janus notices in the way Roman’s walking – slightly hunched over, dragging the tip of his sword across the concrete – that he is filled with nothing but Rage. And he’s heading towards Remus’ room.  
The twins have always been able to communicate through the Imagination space. The doors to their rooms accordingly have been able to switch between connecting to the Sides’ main hall and Imagination. They used to visit each other through here too. Some years it’s been since then. Remus has occasionally barged into Roman’s room, but this is the first time in ages Janus is witnessing the opposite. Unfortunately, no time to celebrate it.

“You shouldn’t do this, Roman.”  
Janus takes a leap of faith and calls out to him, as soon as he enters through the Imagination portal. He hardly ever comes here, since Roman’s mostly in charge. It just now occurs to him how massive and grandiose of a hall this is, with archways up to maybe twenty meters high and a huge amount of light falling through the stained glass leading up to the ceiling. Though both twins have the ability to alter the appearance of the Imagination as they please, the space is now completely barren apart from the stained glass windows.

Roman stops dead in his tracks. There’s a dense orange-red aura around him, and his outfit appears a whole lot darker than usual.  
“Too bad I’m not falling for your tricks anymore. So you can say whatever you want.”  
Even Janus can’t help but be startled by Roman’s unusually hoarse and bitter voice. Meanwhile, he keeps approaching him at a slow but steady pace. He finds himself frozen in place however, when Roman finally turns around to look at him.

“Don’t get in my way,” he almost growls at Janus, his eyes wide and bloodshot with a dark shade of red.  
“I would never,” Janus responds, thinking on the fly of ways to keep Roman’s attention. “But a certain confrontation I had the other day made me see things in a different light. And in all fairness, I can’t help but pity you a little. Having been put in a position like this.”  
Roman turns around to face Janus full front. They’re still a good few meters away from each other, but tensions are so high that Janus has no doubt they’ll be at each other’s throats in a second if he’s not careful.  
“I can see you’re confused, your self-worth has mostly been built on a clear-cut black-and-white foundation after all,” Janus continues, trying his hardest to keep his usual sly and sneering tone of voice under control. “But like Patton realized as well, the world is a lot more complicated than that.”

A few seconds of silence, which is even more chilling in such a massive hall. Just as Janus feels he might be getting through to him, Roman snorts and takes a firmer grip of his sword.  
“Like I said…” As he speaks, Roman puts his foot a step forward.  
“You can’t trick me anymore, neither with those fancy words.”

In the blink of an eye, Roman lunges at Janus and swings his sword towards his face. Just by a hair, Janus is able to grab hold of his cane and shield himself with it for Roman’s attack. Roman fiercely pushes back, his sword gradually cutting into the cane.  
“So you’re not going to listen? Fine, have it your way,” Janus grunts back at him. He swiftly redirects the tip of Roman’s sword to point to his righthand side with the hook of his cane, which makes Roman fall forward and lose his balance for only a moment. But long enough for Janus to distance himself from him again.

“I’ve been waiting for this,” Janus hears him say, though it doesn’t even sound like him anymore. Rage seemed to have completely consumed him at this point. Roman – or what’s even left of him – wastes no more time to swing another attack his way, which Janus again blocks with his cane. Recycling this tactic, he’s able to evade any serious injury for a few slings.  
There has to be a way to get through to him. Or at least keep him occupied, until the others get here. He won’t be able to hold him off for long. His cane is already close to snapping in half. If push comes to shove, he might be forced to go all out. But now that Janus knows he’s facing HIM, that’s an extremely risky move.

Roman lets out a yell and slams his sword against Janus’ cane for a fourth time. Janus hears it cracking, knowing he shouldn’t use it as a shield again if he doesn’t want it to brake. He has no choice but to get some extra pair of hands. With what little strength his cane can handle, he pushes Roman back in order to get his other four arms properly prepared. Just a little more concentration and Janus can conjure them in an ethereal or non-corporeal state, which makes them less vulnerable for damage but simultaneously a lot harder to control.  
Before he’s even had a chance to charge them, Roman suddenly appears right under him faster than his eyes could spot him. With a clean sling, he slays his sword from below aiming for Janus’ stomach. With no other shields ready to defend himself, Janus instinctively grabs hold of the sword with his right hand.

Immediately upon holding it, he feels the blade slicing a good few centimeters through his glove and his hand. Yellow essence gushes out of the wound, splashing on the sword and dripping to the ground. A very sharp and acute pain rushes throughout Janus’ entire body, enough to temporarily paralyze him. Grinding his teeth, Janus stands his ground. He needs to give his arms enough time and concentration to charge.  
Noticing Janus isn’t letting go, Roman snaps his sword out of Janus’ grip, cutting even deeper into the cut on his hand. As he’s getting ready to pierce the snake’s stomach on his second try, a yellow non-corporeal fist hits his face from his left. Roman is sent slammed into the wall a fair couple of meters away.

Janus finds himself transfixed on Roman, afraid to lose side of him in the fog of dust accumulated by the impact. Already he notices he’s breathing heavily, clutching his hand in an attempt to stop the bleeding. But the essence keeps dripping. And every drip on the ground echoes in his ears like an alarm siren. Something animalistic is starting to get a hold of him. But he mustn’t let it take over.

Just concentrate.  
Breathe.

Breathe in for four.

Roman slowly rises from the rumble the impact has left behind.

Hold it for seven.

He emerges for the fog, his eyes now nothing but a dark red void staring right into Janus’ being.

Breathe out for eight.

Calm down. And concentrate.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Even pacing around his room for the last ten minutes hasn’t helped Virgil to calm down. It’s so frustrating to see that the snake manages to wrinkle himself into every little cranny, take even the tiniest amount of peace he’s got left, and instantly ruin everything. He’s not gonna be able to even get to Patton at all, at this rate.  
As much as he tries to breathe, take a second to think, calm himself down – Virgil feels himself filling up to the brim with so much piled up resentment for that liar, that it doesn’t leave him any room to consider anything else. He NEEDS to settle down.

Frantically scanning around his room, he finally rest his eyes on the cork pinboard above his desk. The 'FAMILY' drawing from Patton, post-its with positively and rationally reinforcing messages from Logan, a gaudy and neatly written poem from Roman. See, remember them? Remember for whose sake you’ve been working so hard to get better?  
Don’t let them down now.  
Taking his time staring at the pinboard, Virgil feels some small drops of tears welling up in his eyes. What is he even doing? Getting all upset like a little kid. As much as he hates to admit it, his behavior really isn’t helping. Shouting at Patton like that.

“I hate you.” 

Did he really just say that? Patton didn’t deserve that. What good is it anyway to direct all his hatred towards-  
…Hatred?  
Never before has Virgil felt like such an idiot. How could he have overseen something so simple? That would explain a lot of what has been happening around the Mind Palace: the weird goosebumps he’s been getting while walking around the place, his fight with Deceit even, and…  
God, Roman.  
He should’ve trusted his gut and checked on him again. Something was off since the moment he laid eyes on him last night. More than usual. A kind of vulnerability that makes him especially susceptible to… HIM. 

All Virgil knows now is that he needs to get moving.  
Move where? No idea.  
Just listen to his gut, it’ll tell him where to go.  
…Right?

Truth be told, he hasn’t felt this anxious in a long time. All that’s happening is thrown at him at once. What could he do, really? He knows how powerless he can get around that dude. And apparently he’s already been under his spell for a while. Patton’s never going to support him again. He just outright blurted out he hated him, with so much conviction. And now that he’s aware of what’s happening, he’ll either be left unable to do anything. Or, he might snap completely and seriously hurt someone. Is there anything he can do? Is there a point in trying to move? Should he just lock himself in and wait it out? He’ll probably just end up making the situation worse, like he already has. Or Deceit would just get in his way again. Even Patton, in all honesty. He has every reason to-

“But all that’s not really at the crux of your issues, is it?”

Virgil hears a familiar voice, one that never fails to trigger him. As he turns around, his eyes drift towards the small mirror hanging on the opposite wall. And snickering back at him, with squinty eyes and leaning over the frame, is none other than the snake himself.

“You’ve been beating around the bush for a while now. Shoving the blame onto others, or different kind of worries. You claim you’ve been attacking me to keep Thomas save. To prove yourself for their sake.” With every word he articulates from his mouth, Deceit slowly climbs out of the mirror frame a bit more and walks towards Virgil. With every step he makes towards him, his surroundings get darker and darker. 

“But you’ve been lying to yourself, haven’t you?”

As Deceit snaps his fingers, he shifts into a figure that is even more daunting and intimidating. Black checkered jacket that’s falling widely over his body, hands stuffed deeply in his pockets, and eyes as black as the eyeshadow he’s wearing. 

“Hey there, me.”


	5. Just Breathe

“I’ll do you all a favor and spare you my company.” 

Logan really meant what he said. Patton and Roman had continuously proven that his informative arguments were unwanted. They most likely believed he had no right to speak about a moral dilemma such as this, any more than he already had in the courtroom. And even then, his presence was figuratively shoved aside.  
Despite knowing how little he could apparently contribute to the discussion, Logan made proper arrangements to make sure he would be able to participate in the evaluation without seeming overly invasive. And still, he was met again with scorn and neglect. 

Perhaps that was why he didn’t object when Deceit – or rather, Janus – inserted an obvious “SKIP” button for Patton to press.  
They both knew he would press it.  
Janus claimed he would only be taking over in disguise for a little while, because he was of the opinion that “Patton might be evading the real issue”. Logan didn’t need much convincing; they weren’t going to listen to him anyway. Only if, at the very least, Janus would remain as factual, neutral and informative as possible. No arguing on the basis of morals, because that would only lead to more dramatic situations as it did in the courtroom.  
But of course, he didn’t listen either. Instead, he drove Patton so far to the point of breaking down and transforming, almost letting Thomas be figuratively run over by a train amidst an existential crisis… The situation was simply incomprehensible. 

After concluding his one final attempt to add something to the conversation, Logan immediately retreated to his room. As his presence was only there to be ignored and unwanted. He would consider showing himself in case a less, emotional discussion was to take place. Though as much as he tried to shut himself away from the aftermath about to come, as the Logical Side – responsible for many of Thomas’ biological, neurological and sensory functions – he is always aware to a degree of any conversation Thomas or the Sides were having. Regrettably, in this case.

He thinks back on how he was sitting hunched over at his desk, head resting in both of his hand and closing his eyes. His head was pounding, his teeth grinding, his hands sweating. Even though he didn’t understand what, something was awaking an urge in him to run back and settle the unrest down. He thought it had already escalated to an extreme, but they figuratively reached new heights with whatever Janus and Roman were arguing about.  
Frankly, he was relieved to think Roman seemed to be doing better. They had come closer to making up for their differences, Logan even became aware of things he was doing that could hurt Roman without his intention. He appeared grateful when Logan calmly and effectively shut down Remus. Now he’s not so sure. Logan doesn’t understand much when it comes to emotions, but Roman seemed very lost and alone. It made him feel- no, not feel. It was like he could understand what he might be going through. Quite an unusual sensation, whatever it was. Even still, it was ridiculous that issues with Janus and Remus are even made out as such a major concern anymore. Whatever happened to judging people and hearing their arguments from a neutral point of view?

Not that it matters now.

He’s been in this blank room for, he doesn’t even know how long. Which is odd, because he always is aware of the passage of time. The chains he’s been shackled with have made his wrists sore. He’s just been forced to watch what he – ‘Jules’, as he wants to be called – is seeing. As he’s scavenging about in his room. Scanning through his belongings, putting on his necktie. Just to make him look like a fool, no doubt.  
He did sense a slight change in his state of numbness when Patton walked in. He wasn’t expecting him to check up on him at all, and even experienced a minor breath of relief. The tightening of the shackles around his wrists quickly got rid of that, however. They seem to shrink and become more tight, whenever the numbness ebbs away for a few seconds.

The only time since he’s been sitting here that he ‘felt like’ standing up, was when Jules pushed Patton against the door and screamed in his face. Even though he’d rather not admit it, a protective need of sorts rushed over him to the point of tugging the chains and calling out to him. Jules seemed temporarily caught off guard, blinking and then instantly steering the chains to aggressively yank Logan back down on the ground. Unfortunately he quickly recovered from Logan’s resistance, and since Patton had his eyes closed he probably didn’t even notice.

It was when Jules restrained Patton as well, that this mind-numbing sensation within Logan made way for a certain restlessness and hopelessness.  
He just doesn’t want them to get harmed.  
That’s all.  
They made an agreement – Jules wouldn’t use force. But this clearly attested to the opposite.  
And yet, there’s nothing he could do to stop him.

It is too early to tell for sure it this won’t work out eventually, and all will be resolved. But on the slight chance that it won’t, and that Logan has made a mistake…  
He’s got no other option than to place his trust in the others.

Which is equally worrying.  
Since he is aware that his presence in gradually fading from their minds.  
The feeling in his legs are slowly beginning to fade away, like he is dissipating into thin air.  
The numbing of his mind is getting harder to resist.  
All he can do now, is wait.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“I’ve been waiting way too long to finally have a word with you.”

Anxiety’s scanning him with a look full of contempt, and a sh*t-eating grin to boot. Just looking at him now, Virgil realizes how awfully smug he used to present himself. Like no one could harm him. Taking pleasure in making Thomas feel insecure, instead of searching for a solution. But he’s better now… Right?

“Why are you even here?” Virgil hesitantly asks his former self, “you’re not me anymore.”  
“Oh come on,” Anxiety sighs back at him. “Weren’t you the one who claimed that ‘past phases are the foundation of who you’ve become’? That I’m no less real than YOU?”  
As he sneers this at him, Anxiety takes a few confident steps forward and pushes Virgil, causing him to lose balance and wobble a few steps back. It feels like simply his touch was able to send a surge of nerves through Virgil’s body, which makes Anxiety appear considerably more daunting of a presence.  
“In fact, I’d even argue the opposite,” he adds, never dropping the smug grin off his face.  
“This ‘you’ I’m talking to, he’s a phony. Isn’t he?” Anxiety’s gaze got a lot more dark and piercing all of a sudden, as he slams his hand on Virgil’s shoulder and squeezes. It doesn’t only sting physically; mentally Virgil again notices he’s starting to feel more hopeless and insignificant compared to him. 

“You’ve been picking up more from Janus than you’d like to admit, huh? Making yourself out to be confident, helpful, understanding. But you and I both know what’s in your nature. In the end, all you want to do is cause inner turmoil for Thomas. Just like the rest of us.”

He wants to scream. He wants to hit him. He wants to deny him.  
But Virgil just finds himself unable to move an inch. Anxiety is almost like a black wolf that’s growling at him, inching closer while licking its teeth. Out for blood. And instead of fight or flight, he just freezes up.  
Has he changed? Was it even worth trying? ‘Cause look where they are now. Deceit’s back to taunt the others, leading both Patton and Roman to completely break down. They might never recover from this or get along again. He’s just been leading them straight to misery. He’s still keeping Thomas awake at night; he’s still getting Thomas upset over little things that ultimately don’t matter; he’s just proven to be a nuisance bringing the whole group down.  
At the very least, Anxiety knew what he was doing. And he wasn’t pretending otherwise. Now Virgil claims to be trying to change, but in the end acts exactly like he always does. Why can’t things just be constant? Why is it wrong to simply keep doing what you’re always doing, without needing to switch your behavior around to please others?

Anxiety raises his eyebrows at Virgil, who’s staring down at his feet. He chuckles, pushing his hand down that was still grabbing a hold of Virgil’s shoulder and forcing him to on the ground.

“You can still turn back, y’know. Surely you realized by now that it’s a waste tryin’ to ‘change’, when you know what’s in your nature. You’ve never belonged with them. They’re way too perfect and naive for Sides like us. You just gotta accept that you’ll never be good enough for them. And that’s fine. WE will help you settle for your place here.” 

Maybe it’s just set in stone. Maybe he’s just not capable of change, because he’s always gonna fall back in the same patterns. Why did he waste all this time, if he only made things worse for everyone else? Thomas would be better off if he never tried to fit in, in the first place.  
The room’s getting more cramped, like the air is being sucked out of it. Virgil fears he might choke. His muscles aren’t responding. Anxiety’s words are thrown at him full force, like cannon shots ringing in his ears. His heart in his throat, hands feel cold and numb so he can’t feel the ground he’s sitting on. It’s so hot and humid at the same time, his body heating up.

“Listen to me. Don’t waste another breath on them. Everyone is better off if you just-”

Breath.  
Breathe.  
He just needs to breathe.  
That’s simple enough. He can do that, right?

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“That’s simple enough. You can do that, right?”

“I- I don’t know.”

“Yes you can. Just take a deep breath.”

“NO I can’t! I messed it all up! Thomas is going to suffer because of it and his friends will hate him now and-”

“Virgil. You’re here now. You’re safe. You’re not with his friends.”

“We should be because I should’ve just kept my mouth shut and now I can’t take it back and they-”

“Enough talking. I need you to breathe. Just follow my lead.”

“But we need to check if-”

“No we don’t. We’re going to take a breath, okay? Just try and breathe in for four seconds. See, I’m doing it with you. …Now hold your breath, for seven seconds. I’ll count along with my fingers, see? Don’t worry if you need to breathe out sooner- Very good. Now breathe out for eight seconds.”

“It didn’t work. I can’t hold it in for so long, what if I can’t breathe and Thomas might faint or die-”

“No one’s going to die. Just try again.”

“I-I don’t remember…”

“4, 7, 8. That’s all. Now, breathe in… 4. Hold… 7. And breathe out… 8.”

“…Okay, okay.”

“Please, calm down. Try to lie down, we’ll deal with it after. It’s going to be alright.”

“…So, that means it won’t, right?”

“What?”

“You’re lying. Like always.”

“…I’m not.”

“Prove it.”

“Here, I’ll take it off.”

“…Why only that glove?”

“Just… this other one’s not a pretty sight. I’ll tell you some other time. But for now… I promise, things will be okay. Give it time. Not everything needs fixing right away. Especially if it’s difficult for you. You have every right to protect and look out for yourself, too. And go at your own pace. Tomorrow is another day. So right now, just…”

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

…Breathe.

The air feels less dense and humid, as if the room started expanding again. He can feel the surface he’s sitting on, see Anxiety looking down on him though he now stares at him with a blank expression.

“What are you doing?” 

Virgil watches on as he sees Anxiety backing away, a wolf no longer growling but hiding his tails between his legs. Just this sight alone gives Virgil the courage to stand back up.  
“You’re right about one thing. Some things could simply be part of my ‘nature’, as you like to call it. That I won’t be able to control or fix completely. But I’m trying to get better, at my own pace.”  
Slowly but surely Virgil takes a few steps forward towards Anxiety, who cautiously backs away.  
“If they’ve kept be around and not shut me out for this long, that’s all the more proof of that. And besides, who am I to think that they would just throw me aside for being hard to deal with? I’ve known them longer than today. I know they’re kindhearted and have good intentions. So if I can’t have faith in myself yet, I’ll just have to put my faith in them.”  
Though his voice is still shaky and he feels the nerves rushing through his body, he tries to put as much conviction in his words as he can manage. Even if he doesn’t completely believe it now, it will at the very least scare away this apparition of the past.

Anxiety lets out a weak laugh, attempting to fight back.  
“Well, that would just be unfair. To leave all them to do all the heavy lifting?”  
“Then I’m just going to have to try harder myself. Just because I have a dark past or made mistakes, doesn’t mean I can’t change.” With this, Virgil takes a final deep breath, and closes his eyes.  
4, 7, 8.


	6. Unhinged

As Roman slowly emerges from the rubble, Janus instantly locks his leg muscles in place so he’d be as secure as possible when controlling his arms. Roman doesn’t leave him much room to get ready, however. Even through the dust his eyes glow bright red, and he charges right at him. Just by a hair, Janus is able to dodge his attack by using one of his arms to jump off from the ground.  
In the next second, he sends another one aiming to grab a hold of Roman, only to be met by his sword slicing through its wrist. Though non-corporeal, the arm seems to have been cut through and temporarily rendered still, in an attempt to regenerate. Making use of these few seconds, and much to Janus’ surprise, Roman stabs his sword downward into the floor which sends massive cracks to form around the sword’s point of impact.

“Stop running away!!” 

Along with Roman’s scream, the cracks swiftly travel up to the surface Janus is standing on. Under him it begins breaking apart rapidly, leaving only an extremely fragile surface to support him. He knows that if he makes another move, it’ll crumble under his feet. And with Roman in this current state, he doesn’t want to find out what lies underneath.  
Standing as still and secure as possible, Janus sends all his arms charging at Roman at once. While Roman is still pulling his sword out of the crack’s he’s created, one of the arms is able to grab on to his leg. Mustering up all the concentration he could, Janus attempts to sway it so Roman is sent flying against the wall again. But as he feared, his arms started to have a mind of their own. Instead of sideways, the hand lets go of Roman too early which leads him to crash into the ceiling right above him.

Before Janus even has time to react, Roman plunges down at him, striking his sword down just barely scratching his cheek. As if he planned it, with his sword now slain straight into the surface that’s starting to crumble around them, Roman uses his free left hand to grab Janus by the shoulder and blast his knee right into the snake’s stomach. With such incredible force Janus isn’t even able to process, he finds himself being thrown across the hall and smashed into the wall. All the air gets knocked out of him, as well as any clear mindset he had coming into this. All he feels now is both immeasurable pain through his body, tensing up of his muscles, as well as his animalistic instincts overpowering his train of thought.

Get up.   
Get up.  
Annihilate him.  
You have to survive.  
Whatever it takes.

As quickly as his injuries allowed him, Janus stands back up an unleashes all his arms again without holding back this time. No thinking, just survive. Roman dodges his arms once again, slicing through two of them while one manages to land a hit on him. Despite the impact Roman clutches himself to the fist that just punched him, climbing his way up and running on top of the long arm to get to its source. On the exact moment the two damaged arms are done regenerating, they again lunge towards Roman who repeatedly ducks and jumps while running to try and avoid them.

He’s like a pesky cockroach, just refusing to get crushed.

Finally reaching Janus, Roman jumps down from the arm and repositions his sword ready to stab. Mindlessly lending his instincts control over him, Janus pulls out his already injured hand to shield himself from the sword. As a result, the sword pierces right through, which leaves Janus’ hand redirecting the sword to his left to stab through his hand and into the wall behind him. 

Just faintly registering the pain from his hand in his mind, Janus feels a wide grin appearing on his face while staring at Roman’s deadly deterministic expression. Then he suddenly begins talking.  
“You’re no hero, I always knew it. As did Thomas. You’re just a failure, that’s all you are. You can’t destroy me. Our natures are too similar.”  
Roman’s expression gets dark, as a hint of resignation brushes across his face. Janus is only able to recognize it for a second however, as one of his arms punches Roman at his waist. This leads Roman to fall to his knees, ultimately seeming to succumb to his fatigue and injuries. He just sits there for a few seconds which feel like minutes, as Janus feels his gaze drifting towards the back of the hall.

Sitting on one of the pillars, legs crossed, leaning back on the pillar’s top in a laid-back manner, is an orange figure confidently smiling back at him. Their eyes meet.  
And with that, Janus feels like he regains some control of his mind. As well as the excruciating pain raging through his hand and body all at once. What does he have in his mouth? Slowly coming to his senses, he tastes a fabric. His glove. His teeth have dug into his glove in an attempt to rip it off, with his other hand now pinned down against the wall.

Don’t.  
He knows what it’ll unleash.  
And HE will only feed off of it.

Time slows down.  
Roman rips the sword from Janus’ hand, takes a few steps back, and gets ready to swing his sword down at him for one final blow. His eyes didn’t look away from Janus’ for a second, oozing with what seemed pure hatred.  
Clutching onto the few strings of control he’s able to wield, Janus feels his gaze burning with something feral and his left hand tingling to be unleashed. He forces his eyes shut as Roman strikes his sword down on him.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Then just give me a believable reason WHY you don’t like him!”

Remus wasn’t going to let this go, until he got a satisfying answer. He’d been probing his brother about it for half an hour already, but he’s prepared to keep it going all morning if he had to. It was about time his brother turned that frown upside down actually, it occurred to Remus as he rolled around on Roman’s bed. What if his chin had been his real face all along; that’d mean his little bro was just always happy to see him!

“For the last time, get off my bed!” Roman yelled angrily, though his chin-like face implied otherwise. Remus frowned in return. See? Just two chin-faced brothers enjoying each other’s company. Roman let out a frustrated sigh.  
“I told you to stop barging into my room!”  
“If you don’t lock it, you’re basically asking me to come in.”   
“Don’t you think I haven’t tried the lock already?!”  
Getting bored of the back-and-forth, Remus rolled around some more and finally sat up straight on the bed. Folding his legs, he leaned backwards on the side frame of Roman’s royal-themed bed. 

“But seriously, you’re both huge theatre geeks. Gossipy b*tches. Great liars. A match made in heaven!” Remus enumerated, counting his observations on his fingers. Roman puffed, making his usual pouty face and crossing his arms.  
“Don’t call me a geek. Save that one for mister Bold Brain!”   
“Oh I know! He’s such a dork, isn’t he? No wonder you two yell at each other all the time!” Remus laughed. He was starting to enjoy this, gossiping with his bro as if they’d done it every day.  
“And also, I am no Prince who gossips! Real royalties value honesty and sincerity above all else, after all. Something YOU would know nothing about!” Roman sneered back at him, picking up his brush and redoing his hair in the mirror. He had been busy prettying up for the entire time Remus was here. Did he really spend this much time in front of the mirror every single morning?

“You would be surprised!” Remus responded overly enthusiastic. “I am in fact brutally honest, and I enjoy badmouthing people straight in their faces even more than you. But believe me, Dee has made me realize how much fun it is to do it behind their backs too. But you’re way better at that than me, I’m sure. So you two would just have a blast!”   
Roman seemed to be trying to focus on his hair. But Remus knew him long enough to realize when Roman was trying to keep a straight face, in order to hide his annoyance or frustration. And that was the most fun part of messing with him, honestly. As much as he’d like to believe he’s a good actor, once Remus knew his tells… There was hardly anything Roman could keep hidden from him.

“Oh, and most importantly…” Roman began, now turned away from the mirror and laying down the brush on his dresser.  
“Lying is wrong,” he said firmly.  
Remus raised his eyebrows. Roman seemed to stand behind his statement, but it felt like he was simply repeating something he’d been told. Come to think of it, Deceit’s reveal to Thomas the other day was the whole reason Remus had come to chat with Roman in the first place. Not that he knew a lot about what happened though, Dee’d only told him bits and pieces.   
Roman looked down, presumably unsure of himself. He fiddled with his brush a bit, just holding it in his hands.  
“So there’s no way… someone like ME… could get along with HIM.”

Remus sighed and stood up from the bed.  
“Just you saying that proves my point,” he exhaled, approaching Roman who accordingly backs away from him a little.   
“You’re doing it right now!” Remus exaggeratedly gestured towards him. Roman slyly looked away towards the ground, pouting his lips again.  
“Shut up, I’m not.”  
“All Dee wants is make sure Thomas chooses for himself instead of others for a change. You want that too, don’t you? Wasn’t it the perfect opportunity for him to talk to that ‘dashing fellow’ the other day?”  
Roman continued to look puzzled. Whatever happened to that bold prince who just confidently strived for what he wanted? Since when did Roman begin denying his purpose like this? Not to get too icky and emotional, ‘cause Remus didn’t like the feel of that. But it definitely did annoy him. Time to use one of Dee’s rhetorical tactics to get it through his bro’s thick skull.

“It would be dishonest towards Virge, you know~”  
That seemed to pique his interest. Roman looked straight at Remus, even took a step towards him.  
“What are you saying?”  
“You hated him when you first met him. And look where you two are now! Who are you to judge someone on first impressions?” Remus argued, which made him feel a lot smarter and more eloquent than usual. He was able to be on par with Logan now, surely. Remus couldn’t suppress a self-indulged little grin, liking how well-spoken he sounded for a change. Just needed to counterbalance it now.  
“Such a juicy butt-kill!!” was the next thing he blurted out. Roman was taken aback and looked at his brother with utter confusion. Remus let out a sigh of relief. Intellect was cool for a little bit, but blunt and graphic non sequiturs were more his style anyway.

Recovered from Remus’ outburst, Roman grabbed his brother by the shoulders and pushed him towards the door.  
“It’s about time you leave for real,” he grunted, kicking open the door and shoving his brother into the hall. Remus could struggle some more if he wanted, but he decided to leave it for now.   
“Aww, no more gossiping hours?”  
“Get. Out.”  
“Give Dee a chance, you would make the best friends-” Remus managed to squeeze into the conversation before Roman shut the door on him.  
“-with benefits.” Remus giggled to himself.  
Feeling somewhat accomplished, he waddled back to his room. Making an argument on Virgil was the right call, since his bro had a soft spot for him. He knew Roman would give it another try with Dee if he realized he had done the same for Vee. Surely?


	7. I'm With You

“…Virgil?”  
He barely made it in time. Never did Virgil feel he had to run this fast, but in some miraculous way he’s come between them. He tried shouting at them before, as he was running up to them, but neither seemed capable of listening. There was no other option than to physically get between them.

Though it hurts like hell.  
He had put up both his arms, crossed just above his head, so Roman’s sword would be blocked by them. He never realized how sharp the sword was, however. He’s feeling the purple essence dripping along his elbow onto the ground. As much as he tries to redirect his attention away from the pain, he needs a few seconds before he can open his eyes and look Roman straight in his.

“Roman, please. You have to stop.”

He’s looking back at him with an expression that’s difficult to interpret. Some orange-red flares flicker in his eyes from time to time, which reveals mixed messages of both relief and pure numbness.

“Why are you protecting him?”

Whatever it was, it’s quickly replaced by Roman’s piercing glare of utter disbelief and almost betrayal. Any light that was flickering in his eyes before, disappears again.  
“And here I was, thinking you were on my side,” he grunts back at Virgil, who tries hard not to let his determined gaze falter.  
“I am on your side,” he says with all the conviction he can muster, “because I know this is not going to help you.” Roman isn’t pulling away his sword. On the contrary, the blade seems to be cutting deeper into his skin. Virgil needs to let him lower his guard, for starters.  
“Why not?!” Roman snaps back. “He’s the one who’s caused all this chaos to begin with! It’s his fault everything’s falling apart. I’m doing what needs to be done, and he’s getting in my way one too many times.”  
The sword sinks deeper into Virgil’s arms, causing another spill of his essence to soak the floor.  
“As are you.”

“This isn’t like you, Roman,” Virgil attempts to appeal to him, as he feels his consciousness slipping away from the loss of essence from his wounds.  
“I get that you’re angry, and you have every right to be. But you don’t need to direct your anger towards him, or anyone else. It’ll only make things worse-”  
“Since when am I the evil one here?!”  
Roman suddenly screams out, and to his surprise Virgil sees the orange glare vanish from his eyes for a short moment.  
“I’m just trying to do the ‘right’ thing, but it’s never good enough! And HE only needs to lift a finger, pull out a few tricks, and he’s suddenly hailed as the hero!”  
Tears start to run down Roman’s face, and he bites his lip until it starts bleeding. His eyes turn this dark shade of orange again.

“Tell me how that’s fair.”

Virgil hasn’t heard Deceit make a single sound yet. He isn’t expecting him to back him up, so he’s just going to assume he’s either too injured to talk or letting him take the lead. He’d better.  
“I wish the answer was simple, Roman. I really wish I could say you’re good and he’s evil and just leave it at that.” Virgil is having trouble getting these words out of his mouth, for his sake as much as Roman’s. It would mean admitting to something he may not be ready to admit. But if it’s in Roman’s best interest, he doesn’t have a choice.  
“But no one is completely good or evil; none of us are perfect. We all try our best, and we all make mistakes.”  
“Are you excusing his behavior? How are we supposed to trust someone who’s-“  
“Then what about ME?!”  
Without even considering what he wants to say, Virgil blurts out his thoughts which causes him to choke up a little. Finally, he feels some of the sword’s pressure on his wounds being lifted. Roman’s slowly lifting it from his arms, until Virgil is able to let them hang down next to him. Though still bleeding, he concentrates as to not focus on the pain.

“You know we… weren’t on good terms at the start. And in the end, you put in so much effort just to give me a chance to change. I don’t know what spiraled you downwards to doubt yourself so much. But ever since then… you’ve been nothing short of a hero to me. Flaws and all.”  
Roman backs away more, dropping the tip of his sword on the floor. He’s looking down so Virgil can’t see his expression; he’s just hoping that he’s getting through to him. Roman whispers something under his breath that Virgil isn’t able to make out. Behind him, he can hear Deceit quietly struggling and sighing to stand back up.  
“We have to…give him…a chance too.”  
He never knew how much it would hurt to get those words across. It’s good he’s facing away from Deceit, ‘cause Virgil does NOT want to look him in the face right now. Instead, he attempts to redirect his gaze to catch Roman’s. He takes a cautious step towards him and reaches out his hand.  
“I know you have it in you to give him a chance. Like you did with me. Remember, I’m with you. We’ll do this together-”

“Wait.”

Suddenly, Virgil feels his wrist being grabbed from behind. Deceit’s voice is quiet and sore, and he lets out a hoarse cough right after he finishes speaking. His grip is considerable tense, making Virgil’s arm shake as a result. Just as he’s about to pull his arm away from his grip, Deceit continues.  
“Look behind him.”  
Averting his eyes from Roman, Virgil tenses up as his eyes land on the figure approaching from the back of the hall. Folding up the sleeves of his grey blouse underneath a black waistcoat, he boldly trots towards the three with a smug grin on his face. 

“What are you waiting for, Roman? You’re going to let this deserter get in your way, too?”

It’s been a while since Virgil heard his awfully smooth and low voice, and he hasn’t missed it at all. As he expected, the sight of him alone sends a wave of nerves down his back. Remember, just breathe and keep a clear head.  
As the intimidating orange Side walks up to stand a good but still audible distance away from them, he scans Virgil up and down while his expression sours.

“Virgil.”  
“Julius…”  
“Oh please. ‘Jules’. No need for formalities. And I am so sorry to be crashing this party.”

He glances over at Roman, who – as if he could feel his glare – takes a few more steps away from Virgil’s reach without looking at him. He’s so close, and yet Virgil finds himself unable to move an inch. Deceit is still clutching onto Virgil's arm; either using him to support himself standing up, or urging Virgil to stand his ground. Whatever the reason, it reinforces in his mind that he better not approach. Even though it hurts, to see Roman like this and not do anything.

Julius clears his throat, and looks back at Virgil.  
“But I’ll be taking him off your hands.”  
“No way.” Against his better judgment, and probably Deceit’s, Virgil yanks his arm away from the snake’s grip and manages to take one step closer to Roman. Though immediately after, Julius’ eye contact with him utterly immobilizes him again. In response, Julius lets out a sickly hearty laugh.  
“And what were you planning to do? Stress me out? Right back at you.”  
He then redirects his attention towards Deceit, who Virgil feels is still barely standing up straight behind him.

“And Janus, I’m surprised. Or actually, scratch that. I’m not. You tend to switch sides whenever it’s convenient anyway. With that shady nature of yours.”  
Deceit doesn’t respond. Instead, he moves from behind Virgil to stand next to him. Though still shaky, Virgil feels his heartbeat starting to race as he sees Deceit reaching for his left glove.  
“Sure you want to do that?” Julius responds, raising his eyebrows at him. “You must be bluffing. You should know it’s WRONG to fight violence with violence.”  
At the moment he utters the word ‘wrong’, Julius snaps his fingers and behind him appears… shackled in chains…

“Patton…!”

Kneeling on the ground, Patton appears to have his arms tightly bound behind his back. Because of the blindfold covering his eyes, Virgil has difficulty seeing his expression. But judging by his lips quivering, Virgil can tell he must be terrified. Which enrages him even more.  
“You..!” Before he has any chance to approach them further, Deceit stretches out his arm again in front of him, blocking his way. Though just like Virgil, he’s shaking violently and can only barely keep his voice steady under his breath.  
“We have to stay calm…” he whispers to Virgil, trying to get it under Jules’ radar.  
“But what can we do?!” Virgil hisses back at him. In the meantime, Roman has been backing away closer towards Julius. He looks defeated; like he doesn’t have any other choice. Virgil feels the panic setting in. There must be something they can do.

“Roman, please. Don’t listen to him. We’re here to help!”  
“You know better, Roman. They’re trying to sway you into trusting them. But you know they’re bad-natured at heart, you always have. Don’t worry, I’m with you.”  
Julius pats Roman on the shoulder, who slightly flinches at the touch. At this rate, he’s going to take them both. Virgil knows the danger of attacking him head on, but if he doesn’t… He has to prove he’s on Roman's side. Actions speak louder than words, right?

“Virgil, don’t!” Deceit warns him firmly.  
“Well, we have to do something!!”

Julius smirks, reaching his hand out towards Virgil. Something inside him almost tempts him to grab it. But Roman’s presence alone is enough to convince him not to.  
“Why don’t you two go ahead, then?” Julius grins widely, covering his mouth with his hand. The highlights in his hair begin illuminating somehow, as the aura around him starts radiating more profusely throughout the hall.  
“It’s been a while since we had some decent action around he-”

None of them were prepared for what – or rather, who – came barging in. Before Jules even had the time to finish his monologue, a huge mace of sorts hits him from behind. In the blink of an eye, Jules is sent flying to the other side of the hall, crashing into the wall which is left crumbling to pieces. Now that’s an entrance of someone Virgil never thought he’d be relieved to see.

“Then it’s about time the Dukey dropped in!”


	8. Friend or Foe

Almost like a deus ex machina, as they say.  
Even though he’s gotten used to Remus’ unpredictability, it amazes Janus at how he’s able to occasionally drop in at exactly the right time. He was already close to tearing off his glove, in spite of desperately trying to keep Virgil calm. He didn’t even see Remus coming – Jules’ impact against the wall on his right made him snap out of his hyper-focused state of mind.  
After slamming Jules out of sight for the time being, Remus swiftly breaks Patton’s chains with his Morningstar – this leaves the chains to immediately evaporate into thin air. He doesn’t even get the time to help Patton get back on his feet, as he’s met with Roman swinging his sword near his neck.  
“There you are, finally,” Roman grunts, his voice trembling from pure bloodlust. With Remus just able to block the attack, it gives Virgil the time he needs to run up to Patton instead.

Meanwhile, Janus feels like all the energy just drained out of him at once. Afraid of falling over with only one step, he attempts to stand still as secure as possible while refocusing his concentration on his breathing – instead of his blurry vision and the relentless surges of pain throughout his torso.  
Faintly, he can see Virgil pulling Patton on his feet. As it seems he’s having trouble standing up straight, which leads Virgil to support him and walk back from the two brothers.  
As soon as Patton and Virgil are a safe distance away from him, Remus pulls back his weapon and takes another swing towards Roman. In return, Roman blocks his brother’s attack with his sword. Even when fighting, they seem awfully in sync with each other. Even though Remus is considerably more brash and wild, both him and Roman seem to mirror each other’s heated violent attacks and consequently blocking them as well. 

“Patton, are you okay?!” Virgil shakily asks Patton, who he’s holding up by having Patton’s right arm around Virgil’s neck and his own left arm around Patton’s waist.  
“I’m sorry. I… I should’ve known better…” Patton barely manages to answer. Janus keeps his eyes locked on the two of them, scanning Patton’s body for any serious injuries. He needs to get him out of here. He won’t be able to defend himself against Jules if he comes back. On the other hand, he senses an incredible fury oozing off of not only Roman but Remus as well. Janus figured Remus must’ve felt something while he was in his room, since Imagination as a space is linked to both the twins’ being. It could be dangerous for Remus to stay near Roman any longer, too.

Before Janus is able to get a word of warning in, emerging from the rubble, Jules launches himself towards them. By a hair, Virgil manages to get in front of Patton and block Jules’ attack by grabbing his fists.  
“Don’t you DARE get in my way!” he yells at Virgil, spitting in his face as his loathing and resentful voice echoes throughout the hall.  
“I won’t let you hurt him again,” Virgil tells Jules off, keeping his voice surprisingly calm and steady. Janus feels like he regains some reassurance knowing Virgil will probably be able to hold out for now, longer than him at least.  
As Jules is being held back by Virgil, Remus seemed to have found an opening to land a clean swing on Roman and sent him flying a good few meters back into the ground. Unsure of how quickly he’s able to get back on his feet and charge forward again, Janus runs up to Remus and grabs him by the shoulder to look at him.

“Remus, grab Patton and get out of here.”  
“What? You’re kidding?!”  
It’s clear he has to leave, as soon as Janus takes a look at Remus’ expression. Just like he recognized with Roman earlier, Remus’ eyes have turned a maddening dark green colour with orange circles around his irises. His entire body is shaking violently, part of his face covered with splatters of his own and Roman’s essence. He’s about to snap; Janus knows he has to hold onto the last remaining portion of sanity left in Remus now to convince him to leave.  
“Like hell I’m leaving. I’ll FINISH HIM-”  
“You don’t want to do that. Trust me, and go. I’ll take care of Roman.”  
The orange circle flickers in Remus’ eyes, leaving a few seconds for him to give Janus a concerned look. Janus swallows, hiding his own trembling and the distress written on his face to give Remus a reassuring nod. It’s the best he can manage. Luckily, it’s enough for Remus to run up to Patton, who’s still slumped against the wall. Throwing his arms over his shoulders, Remus hoists Patton on his back and grabs hold of his legs. 

“Hey! What are you doing?” Patton exclaims worriedly, though he doesn’t try to resist.  
“We’re going for a bumpy ride, padre!” Remus faux-excitedly answers, giving one final glance at Janus before swiftly running off, away from the Imagination.  
As Virgil sees the two pass, his grip on Jules’ fists falter and Jules violently swings his hands loose from Virgil’s grip.  
“YOU FILTHY TRAITORS!” As if a wildfire suddenly bursts, a heated explosion of rage immediately fuels the entire hall. In mere seconds Janus is met by Roman slicing his sword towards him, which Janus is just barely able to block with one of his extra arms. But as the sword is starting to pierce through and the arm slowly begins to evaporate, Janus realizes he doesn’t have any other choice.  


Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Jules grabbing Virgil by the neck and landing an immensely powerful punch right in Virgil’s stomach. He begins coughing violently, as Jules slams him against the wall while still choking him. This sight makes Janus feel like his mind just snaps, right as his vision goes black and he feels the fabric of his glove clutched between his teeth-

“STOP!”

Roman’s voice.  
Did he move?  
Why does he hear it from his right?  
As Janus’ vision slowly returns to him, his gaze is left staring towards Jules who now has Roman’s sword near his throat. Roman standing behind him, his free hand on Jules’ shoulder, not moving an inch like a sniper ready to shoot.  
“Let him go,” Roman says firmly, not a shroud of rage in his voice. Rather, it actually sounds like himself. Removing his glove from his mouth again, Janus struggles to inch closer to the three of them. Virgil’s keeping his eyes peeled, staring at Jules who squints his eyes at him. After some seconds tick by, he lets go of Virgil’s throat, leaving him gasping for air and coughing as he collapses to the ground.  
Janus senses his legs moving for him, some nostalgic instinct which leads him to stand slightly in front of Virgil and leaning his hand against the wall above him. Shielding him. No one gets to lay another finger on him.

In response, Jules lets out one of his awfully smug giggles.  
“You want to protect him in that state you’re in? If I only lift a finger I could-”  
The blade of Roman’s sword rises against Jules’ throat. Sighing exaggeratedly, he accordingly takes a few steps back along with Roman and pushes the sword away from him.  
“Fine, we’ll leave you be for now. We’re gonna get our hands on Patton again next time, anyway. You’ll regret getting in our way.”

And with that, they both turn their backs on them and walk away. Janus hasn’t felt this sense of defeat, failure and humiliation in a long time. As he hears Virgil cursing and slamming his fist on the ground in a fit of frustration, he sees Roman looking back at them one more time before his vision blurs again until it leaves nothing but darkness.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As Patton slowly feels like he’s getting back to his senses, he realizes just how much he’s been craving for such a moment of warmth, comfort and security. Keeping his eyes closed for another few seconds, he clutches onto the poofy blankets he’s apparently tucked into and sinks his head further into the pillow he seems to be resting on. Savoring this little moment for just a bit longer, before he prepares himself to open his eyes and-  
What’s that tickling his nose?

“Huh..? Wh-WHAAAAH!” 

And the first thing he sees as he awakes, is a rat’s tail dangling in front of his face. As Patton lets out a screeching scream, the rat jumps up and runs back into a hole in the wall. With his heart now racing and his eyes darting all over the place, Patton doesn’t even pay attention to the drawings on the wall and instinctively raises himself up from the bed…  
Only to bump his head into the bed frame above him.  
Well, that’s brings an end to his little moment of peace.  
He falls straight back on the pillow, rubbing his forehead and grunting a little. Wait a second. His bed doesn’t have another bed frame on top of it. Whose bed is he even resting in?

“Good morning, sleepyhead!”  
Startled by a sudden voice from above, Patton twists his head left to be met with a pair of wide twinkling eyes and an upside down grin.  
“EEE! Ah, Remus…?!” Gosh, one more jumpscare and Patton’s heart is sure to pound right out of his chest. He quizzically looks at Remus, who’s eyeing him excitedly upside down from on top of the upper bed frame.  
“What are you doing here?” he asks, still trying to put two and two together as to how in the world he ended up in here.  
“What am I doing here? This is my room, dummy!” Remus taunts him, sticking out his tongue. He then quickly pops his head back out of Patton’s view, after which he jumps down on the floor which makes the bunk bed’s entire structure shake.  
“Then, why am I here? And not in my own-”  
“ ‘Cause ya got your room locked for me, remember?” Remus responds in a disappointed tone, as he turns around and kneels down on Patton’s eye level.

With this realization, his surroundings slowly start to sink in. Patton has never set foot in Remus’ room before, even promised himself he never would. For a similar reason he swore to never let Remus set foot in his. And yet, here he is. And more importantly, Remus’ room is a lot less frightening and dangerous than he imagined it would be. He still feels the warmth from the blankets he’s tucked into, an assembly of plushies laying around him that make him feel secure, and a comfortable soft mattress.  
Meanwhile, Remus has been leaning on the side of the bed with arms crossed, resting his head in them. Dreamily looking Patton in the eyes.  
“You’ve been taking your sweet ass time waking up,” Remus tells him, still grinning and nodding his head along with the rhythm of his words.  
“What do you mean? How long have I been sleeping?” Patton answers concerned. He’s been trying to dig into his memory as to what happened before he passed out, but so far it’s only been bits and pieces. Flashes.  
He remembers being chained up.  
Feeling helpless.  
Not seeing anything.  
And so much built up rage stirring inside him, which he was desperately trying to keep under control.

“Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news but…”  
Remus gets up from Patton’s side and turns away from him, folding his hands behind his back in a dramatic pose.  
“…you’ve been gone for months. The world you know is no longer. The others have been annihilated. Chaos has wrecked the Mind Palace to pieces, blood everywhere, the Imagination space torn DOWN..!”  
The more Remus elaborates on his apparent fantasies, the more flashy poses and dramatic twirls he twists his body into. Clearly enjoying messing with Patton more than he already has. Luckily he doesn’t let it get to him that easily anymore, since he knows for a FACT that Remus is just fabricating nonsense again.

…Wait. How does he know that so quickly?

“I’m being serious, Remus. Please, stop fooling around.”  
Patton sighs, anxious as he feels his arms still aching a little from the chains while he’s leaning on the bed. One of the rats seems to have reappeared from its hole, crawling its way over Patton’s arm to nestle itself near his hand. Instead of letting them scare him again, Patton allows the little rodent to approach and lets him sniffle along his fingers. He’s actually… pretty cute. 

“Ugh, fine. Like… a few hours or so. Virgil’s been pacing in and out of the room constantly, it’s really pissing me off.” Remus lets out a long sigh as well, and drops back on the floor.  
The rat’s found a resting spot in Patton’s hand, and as he’s holding the little guy secure he carefully lifts himself up from the bed – without bumping his head this time. As he throws the blankets off him and dangles his legs outside of the bed, Remus’ mention of Virgil brings back a few more flashes of the day before.  
Virgil shielding him from someone.  
Jules, the orange Side.  
He was the one who shackled him in those chains.  
But how? How did he get to him?

“So, fess up,” Remus tells Patton almost judgingly. “How’d he get a hold of you?”  
Still a bit nervous in Remus’ presence, Patton looks down and gently pets the rat in his hand.  
“Well, that’s the thing. I can’t really remember. Only bits and pieces of what happened come back to me every now and then, but what I’m most certain about is the way I felt throughout all of it.”  
Patton shoots another glance at Remus. He is resting one of his arms on his knee, tilting his head a little but seeming interested. Despite this, Patton feels uneasy discussing this with him. It were some nasty feelings that reminded him of his breakdown after the wedding, and he doesn’t know if he’s ready to discuss them with someone like Remus. He’s the kind of Side that usually thrives on those nasty emotions, anyway. He’d probably just laugh at him. 

To Patton’s surprise, Remus appears to have been attentive enough to catch on to his hesitation. With a short puff, Remus closes his eyes for a moment and turns his head towards the door. After which he calls out to someone.

“Oh Virgil~! He’s awake!”


	9. Time to Regroup

Walking in circles in front of Remus’ door, Virgil can’t stop biting his nails. They were so close. Roman was right in front of him, and he still wasn’t able to pull him out of Jules’ grip. They essentially got beat up for nothing. Well, at least Patton’s safe. But honestly, Virgil’s scared to even face him now. The last thing he said to him before he got caught, was that he hated him.

“Oh Virgil~! He’s awake!” Remus suddenly sings from his room. 

Virgil feels his heart beginning to race, as he’s approaching the door and placing his hand on the handle. Taking a deep breath, he leaves a few seconds of stillness before he enters. Just need to be upfront and apologize. For a second, he feels an ominous and awfully familiar presence behind him again. He hears him smirking. Should’ve known he wasn’t gonna disappear forever. But he’s NOT letting him distract him now.  
Facing forward and canceling out the mocking smirking from behind him, Virgil opens the door and walks in.

Remus is sitting on the floor with crossed legs, leaning forward with hands on his ankles and a big stupid grin across his face. Patton’s sitting on the side of his bed, petting one of Remus’ rats that has nestled in his hand.  
Virgil and Patton awkwardly stare at each other for a while, like they’re waiting for the other to speak up. Meanwhile, Remus is flopping his head back and forth between them like he’s watching a tennis match.  
“Are you… feeling better?” Virgil cautiously opens the conversation with, stuffing his hands deep in the pockets of his hoodie. He feels HIM tugging at his sleeve again.  
Not now.  
Just breathe.  
“Yep,” Patton smiles, nodding his head along. It’s the kind of sweet and innocent smile that always makes Virgil feel a little better himself. And even though it does, it makes him feel guilty as well. Time to stop being a coward, and apologize already.

“I’m sorry…”  
“I’m sorry!”

Virgil’s words trail off, as he notices they’re apologizing at the same time. He notices Remus tilting his head at the sudden simultaneous outburst. As Patton looks down with a troubled expression, he lays his hand next to him after which the rat jumps out of his other hand.  
“You were right. I should have supported Roman, but instead I’ve just been dishonest towards him. That was wrong of me to do. It’s my fault it ended up like this…” Patton’s voice is starting to break as he speaks on, and he begin rubbings his hands roughly. Continuing to look down, he seems as reluctant to look Virgil in the eyes as Virgil is as well.  
“I know it doesn’t mean anything anymore at this point, but…” Patton mumbles, as he hesitantly raises his head and can finally catch his gaze.  
“…I don’t know what else to say than I’m-”

“It’s fine,” Virgil responds, at last having found the courage to speak up. Anxiety’s grip is released from his sleeve, as he hears him sighing in disappointment behind him. Serves him right.  
Though Patton’s apology helps to settle down some last remaining feelings of annoyance for his treatment of Roman, Virgil knows it’s not all on him.  
“I made some mistakes, too. I… didn’t mean what I said, you know? I was just angry…” Virgil struggles to make his sentences coherent. Not even when admitting to his screw-ups, can he keep his voice steady. Such a coward, Anxiety tries whispering in his ear.  
“Don’t sweat it, kiddo,” Virgil hears Patton say, breaking off whatever Anxiety was trying to tell him. Feeling considerably lighter as he feels his dark persona’s presence fading, Virgil faces Patton again.  
“Let’s try and atone for our mistakes together, then,” Patton continues, as he gives Virgil the brightest smile he seems to manage. Imbuing him with the reassurance he needed, Virgil faintly smiles back at Patton. He feels Anxiety’s no longer lurking behind his back.

“And now… KISS!”  
Of course, Remus has to butt in with something random. He has both his hands a short distance away from each other, hopefully dashing his eyes between the two of them.  
“Shut up,” Virgil scoffs, though not able to suppress a slightly embarrassed chuckle. Patton blushes deeply and folds his hands together.  
“What?” Remus shrugs and holds up his hands. “I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t want to see it…”  
“Speaking of lying…” Patton puts on a more stern face, and looks at Remus and Virgil concerned.

“What happened to Janus? Was he there with us?”

Virgil furrows his eyebrows. Doesn’t Patton remember? So Jules was able to suppress part of his memory. He didn’t realize he is capable of something like that. Another ability of him to be wary of, then.  
“Yeah,” Virgil begins, rubbing the back of his neck. “He got knocked out though, so I brought him to his room.”  
Patton’s head perks up; his hands firmly clutch onto the side of the bed as if he’s ready to get up instantly.  
“Is he okay?! I’ll go and check!” But before Patton is even able to walk one step forward, he starts wobbling on his feet and immediately falls back down. Virgil noticed right on time, allowing him to grab Patton by his shoulders and carefully sit him back down on the bed.  
“You’re not going anywhere. You just lay low and rest.” Virgil tries to put up a stern voice himself, one he has been hearing from Patton on multiple occasions. It seems to have worked, as Patton breathes out in a short sigh and closes his eyes.  
“Yeah, okay. Maybe I should. But-”

“Remus, can’t you go and check? Then I’ll just bring Patton to his room.”

Remus pouts a little, scratching one of his rats under its neck. It nuzzled back in Remus’ lap when it jumped out of Patton’s hand earlier. He holds onto his pouty face while switching his gaze between Virgil and Patton; though when a few seconds pass, the joking expression falls from his face and he looks away dejectedly.  
“Well, if I do I’ll only go whack him unconscious again so-” Remus grunts as he chokes up a little, petting his rat while his hands are both tensing up. Virgil lets out a sigh of frustration.  
He remembers getting back from the Imagination and meeting up with Remus earlier. As he told him Roman got away, Remus’ face got dark real fast and he saw him viciously biting his lip till it started bleeding. His eyes started darting around on the floor, his breathing got heavier and his hands were trembling. Noticing all these warning signs, before giving Remus time to react, Virgil sneaked passed him to carry Deceit to his room. He hated disappointing Remus like this, since he knows Roman can be a sensitive subject and Remus is prone to quick outbursts. He’d apparently kept it under control however, as he met back up with him in his room afterwards in his usual wacky mood.  
But judging from Remus’ reaction now, he’s still got some resentment against Deceit or holding him responsible for Roman’s disappearance. Well, can’t really blame him. Deceit did say he’ll ‘take care of him’, which he clearly didn’t. Once a liar, always a liar. 

“Fine, I’ll go,” Virgil finally gives in. “You two stay here.”  
Patton shoots a concerned look in Virgil’s direction, at then looks at Remus. He scoffs, feigning to be offended.  
“Come now! I don’t bite! …Only if you want me to.”  
“Don’t let me come and babysit you now! Seriously!” Virgil yells out. It’s this type of nonsensical bickering with Remus that just never fails to drive him insane. Can’t say he’s missed it.  
Remus winks in response, sticking out his tongue at him.  
“Be careful what you say, because I’m ALWAYS listening.” Virgil taps near his ear, trying to pull off an intimidating face in front of Remus. Though he knows it’s no use, this is Remus he’s talking to.

Feeling fed up with dealing with him, Virgil turns around and heads out the room. Pulling up his shoulders as he breathes in deeply, he shakes off the nerves holding him back and walks towards the snake’s room. 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“This isn’t what we agreed on.” 

Logan is standing near his desk with his arms crossed, following Jules’ movements as he paces around the room in the same circles over and over again. Roman leans back against the door in the back of the room, hiding his arms behind his back. Closing his eyes and breathing nervously every now and then.  
They’re ignoring him again. What a surprise.  
Logan’s ankles are still shackled with chains, leaving him very little room to move around. He’ll just have to raise his voice, then.

“You told me they wouldn’t get hu-”  
“Can you SHUT UP?!” Jules screams out, ringing into Logan’s eardrums to the degree he can’t help but flinch a little. Without any time to continue, Logan feels a powerful fist on the side of his face, punching him so hard he falls back and needs to grab onto the desk as to not stumble on the floor. Some drops of his essence trickle down from his nose on the light wooden desk.  
“You should be grateful I’m letting you out in the first place,” Jules hisses at him, his eyes seething with fury. Logan hears Roman taking a few steps forward towards them, but ultimately sees him hesitating to grab Jules by the shoulder.

“But you’re right,” Jules responds calmly, after taking a deep breath and efficiently returning to his usual confident demeanor. He adds a little smile to his expression, which in turn leaves Logan sensing a restlessness of some kind stirring inside him.  
“Of course you are. But you see, how could I have seen coming that someone’s idiotic brother came in to attack me?” Jules immediately shifts his gaze towards Roman, who returns it with a look of both apparent shock and guilt. He grabs a firm hold of his wrist, digging his nails into it even.  
“If it hadn’t been for that snake, I would’ve gotten him too,” Roman snaps back spitefully, turning his head away from Jules. Logan can’t hold back a scoff in disbelief. This is getting ridiculous, Roman of all Sides should know better.  
“Roman, you especially should have known what happens when you attempt to get rid of Remus. It’ll only end up-”

“He didn’t though, did he? They’re all going to be fine, that’s what YOU should have known. I thought you were the smart one here?” Jules tells Logan off as he looks at him belittlingly. Whatever is brewing inside Logan, it’s making his body and mind increasingly more restless and Jules simply seems to be feeding off of it. The grin on his face keeps getting wider.  
“Roman has every right to feel what he feels, and to act on his grudges,” Jules says as he turns to Roman and goes to stand next to him.  
“You’ll get your moment to finish him off. The crown can only befit one, after all,” Jules smirks, patting Roman on the back.  
Something about the way he phrased it, fills Logan with an unwanted sentiment of concern. Roman has been way too quiet lately. He hasn’t been his usual self at all since he teamed up with Jules, understandably so. But the looks he’s giving Logan sometimes make him think he’s more troubled than Jules wants him to be.

“And as for you…” Jules then redirects his attention towards Logan again. As he approaches until a few inches in front of his face, he tugs on his necktie.  
“It isn’t really fair to be having second thoughts now, is it?”

Logan catches himself thinking that what he’s saying isn’t entirely untrue. He knew the risks of allowing Jules to take over in his place, but his continuing neglect from the others left him with no other choice than to shake his hand. If he doesn’t get heard, Thomas wouldn’t be able to make any rational decisions anymore. He HAS to be there to keep situations under control. And when Jules offered him a method to let his voice ultimately be heard again, he couldn’t refuse.  
Is the harm against the others and turmoil worth it, though? Is Jules able to convince them when all he does is stir up conflict and seed hatred? 

No, it isn’t his place to morally contemplate matters of this nature. He shouldn’t feel any kind of doubts or worries. In fact, he shouldn’t feel anything. He’s the Logical Side, after all. He’s only being cautious that the others aren’t badly hurt, because they wouldn’t want or be able to listen at all otherwise.  
Nothing more.

Logan looks back at Jules, who stares at him with a satisfied grin. He imagines that even if he had any doubts at all, Jules could just shut him down and seal him away with ease. Better to monitor the situation from here in moments like this when he can, to make sure the others at the very least make it out of this in one piece.  
“So. We’re good, right?” Jules pats Logan on the shoulder, then turns around and walks up to the room’s door.  
“I’ll be doing my rounds now. Don’t worry, I’ll lock the door behind me.”  
As the Orange Side takes his time to open the door and walk out, Logan finds himself startled by Roman suddenly grabbing his arm when Jules has his back turned to them.

“What we’re doing, it makes sense, right? We’re doing nothing wrong?” 

Roman whispers to him panicked under his breath, his words slurring together as he hurries to get them out of his mouth without Jules noticing.  
Just for a fraction of a second, Logan feels a wave of discomfort and worry rush through his being at once. Roman is staring at him like he’s terrified, the orange circles in his eyes flickering. Logan’s heart is starting to race, and he opens his mouth stuttering before he realizes it.  
“Uh, I-I…”

“Oh dear, I almost forgot.”

The door creaks, and Jules sets his foot back in the room. His voice sounds low and brooding, almost disappointed. Did he hear Roman talking? Before Logan even has a chance to defend himself, Jules snaps his fingers and Logan finds himself returned to his white empty space of nothingness.  
Back to where he started.  
Only now, his arm is left tingling from Roman’s grip and he feels his mind clouding with doubt and more restlessness. Which now leaves Logan unable to sit still anymore.


	10. Alone, Together

Alone.  
Roman was sick of feeling alone.  
Lost in a wilderness of lurking monsters and mysterious waters, trying to follow a light he believed was leading to his way out. But ultimately, he just ended up in the same huge open field similar to a crossroads. With all these different pathways to take, but no way to know for sure if there were other trustworthy travelers walking along the same path. Or it would just lead him straight into a trap.

Jules made a case that he knew which pathway to take. That it would be tough, but it would lead him to a safe place in the end. And what hero would shy away from an adventure?  
Ugh, who is he kidding? He’s no hero.  
Everyone’s been telling him time and time again.  
From Deceit, he expected nothing less.  
But when he finally saw Virgil face to face again in the Imagination, a tiny part of him was wishing he’d be the one to pull him through the weeds onto a different pathway. And Roman himself could just take the lead from there.  
Alas, to no avail.  
As Jules had predicted, even Virgil has been swayed by the snake’s venomous words. Lying through his teeth to save his skin.

“You’ve been nothing short of a H E R O to me. Flaws and all.”  
“…Liar.”

Oh how Roman wished he was able to scream it at him, but for some reason his throat wouldn’t allow it. He’d come to hate that word, ‘hero’. All it had become now was a trigger; it brought about a surge of monsters and dark waters onto his pathway that felt like they would devour Roman whole. They became all he could see and hear, reality would just blur away.  
His reality has been blurring away constantly recently. Every now and then he sees flashes of the others, and is able to be conscious of their presence. But his movements, the attacks, his sword slaying everyone around him, that felt out of his control.  
Jules promised he’d be taking care of the dirty work, that he needn’t worry. But somewhere during all of it, seeing him holding Virgil up against the wall, that must have been crossing the line. ‘Cause before Roman knew it, he was holding his sword up against Jules’ throat yelling at him to stop. Those were some of the rare moments he actually felt real, like he had some agency.

For the remainder of it, it was like he was letting his body and primal instincts make decisions for him. Just going through the motions, no thinking.  
His instinct was urging him to get rid of Remus. So he would be the sole heir to the title of Creativity.  
His instinct was telling him to annihilate the snake once and for all, for getting in his way all the time.  
His instinct was painting every environment he set foot in a violent shade of orange, instilling in him nothing but restlessness and anger.  
He wanted to trust that Jules knew what he was doing, because he could no longer trust in himself or anyone else.

But he’s been questioning.  
Sometimes, their words or actions awakened a feeling in him that made him long for those past moments of happiness. That maybe, he could reach out and ask for help.  
Maybe that’s why he grabbed Logan when the two of them were alone.  
It was a rare moment for Jules to have his back turned on the both of them, not paying attention. Suddenly, Roman experienced a moment of clarity in his mind. He didn’t even know what he wanted or was looking for, he just wanted to get rid of those doubts in his head and have faith again. If not in himself, at the very least in that what he was doing – or what he was being made to do – would be worth it.

“What we’re doing, it makes sense, right? We’re doing nothing wrong??” He felt pathetic like a puppy whining for attention, but in that moment he didn’t care. He recognized that look in Logan’s eyes as a similar look of doubt. And though he didn’t like to turn to him for help, he knew at the very least that he was reliable.  
But Logan just stammered, way too long to have any time to conjure up a response that made Roman calm down. Even that annoying flickering light further down the path, seemed out of Roman’s reach.  
With only a snap of his fingers, Jules sealed Logan away.  
Leaving Roman alone again.

But something felt different now. Like a realization struck him.  
Even in Jules’ company, even with his instincts driving his body forward, it hasn’t made Roman feel any less alone. It’s just making him feel like he’s losing more of his agency, his purpose, his vision, the pathway in front of him. Lost wandering in the dark.  
Maybe he should use those short-lived moments of clarity as a means to act on those doubts. What does he have to lose, really? He feels like he already lost just about everything. Maybe reaching out to someone when he can – anyone – could at least clear some things up. He knew now that Logan was in the same boat as him, doubting whether this was the right thing to do. Knowing that one tiny piece of information was already making him feel less alone. Like he could trust in something again.

Perhaps he isn’t worthy to try and go against Jules who seems to be looking out for him. Maybe he deserves this. Whether that’s true or not, acting on his doubts in the moments of clarity could just be the way to prove that, and which pathway he should take.  
Because all he knows now is that he does not want to feel alone anymore.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A loud knock on the door awakes Janus from his slumber, as he realizes he’s cuddled up on the couch in his room by himself. Flashes of the last few hours coming back to him, he figures someone must have carried him to his room after he passed out.  
Another three knocks. Considerably louder this time.  
“C’mon, open up!” he hears Virgil yell from the other side.  
Even as a surprise to himself, it makes Janus jump up embarrassed and try to sit up straight on the couch. He doesn’t like people seeing him vulnerable, though perhaps after that pathetic loss it doesn’t matter much anymore. Plus sitting up might not have been his brightest idea, since his back is still in the middle of healing so he’s hardly able to move it without feeling the aching pain.

“Come on in, then,” Janus answers with the most confident tone of voice his headache would allow, while he sits himself up straight and pours himself a glass of wine that was still on the coffee table. He snaps his fingers to get rid of the lock, after which Virgil awkwardly opens the door and pops his head in.

“Well, you’re not dead.” Virgil doesn’t set foot inside the room yet, just peering at Janus from the door opening. He puts a mocking grin on his face, feigning disinterest but Janus knows he’s just enjoying seeing him fragile. Though he won’t let him have a laugh for much longer.  
“ Of course not. I’m perfectly fi- Ow.” As Janus attempts to cross his legs nonchalantly, his headache starts acting up again which leaves him to instantly rub his hand against it. His right hand has still not healed properly either, sending strains and painful surges throughout his entire hand with every movement his fingers make. The wine glass is just dangling in his other hand, some of the contents spilling on the floor.  
So pathetic. He’d rather just crawl back in a hole than let Virgil see him like this.

Virgil chuckles in return, now opening the door wide and stepping inside the room.  
“Sure you are.”  
He walks around the front of the coffee table across from the couch, and then snatches the wine glass from Janus’ hand.  
“Let me take that,” he says, as he puts his mouth to the glass and takes a small sip. His face immediately scrunches up. Janus isn’t surprised by his reaction; wine is a drink too refined for his taste anyway.  
“Can’t believe you like this fancy crap. Though in fact, it does kinda suit you,” Virgil smirks again, as he wanders around the coffee table again. This enjoyment he seems to be having from making fun of him in a vulnerable state is getting annoying really quickly.  
“Just get to the point, Virgil. I imagine you came here for a reason?”  
Virgil puts down the wine glass again, taking a seat on the couch next to him but still tucked away in the corner, harboring the most distance from him as possible. Typical.

“Well, Patton wanted to know how you were doing, so…”  
While Virgil’s voice trails off as he pulls up his leg to get one of his feet on the couch, Janus’ head perks up. He remembers telling Remus to get Patton out of the Imagination. So they are most likely in Remus’ room now. Let’s hope Patton hasn’t freaked out too much after waking up.  
“Oh?” Janus responds, raising his eyebrows and glancing over at Virgil slyly.  
“So you were worried about me?”  
“What?! No! I said Patton, didn’t I?!” Virgil yells back offended as his face gets red, but that’s what he gets for humiliating him.  
“Weren’t you the one who carried me back here, though?” Janus prompts him, looking up towards the ceiling to feign puzzlement. Unfortunately forgetting the ceiling light right above him, staring right into the light source sends an acute sharp pain across his forehead. So painful even, it makes him feel nauseous to the point he has to lean forward, aching his back again. Attempting to support himself on the coffee table the wound on his hand opened up again, as Janus felt the essence dripping through the fabric. Combine that with a headache and nausea, and Janus is left feeling miserable and unable to move.  
A slight lift from the couch gives him the impression Virgil has gotten up, though Janus is too fixated on his own state to be hearing anything around him. He hates feeling this weak. Helpless. What use is his role as self-preservation if he can’t even preserve himself?

“Here.”  
In a meek attempt to open his eyes, Janus sees Virgil placing a glass of water and a small wet towel in front of him. Taking a deep breath, Janus grabs the glass and carefully leans back on the couch again.  
Too embarrassed of this little collapse, Janus quietly sips from his glass as Virgil keeps his mouth shut as well. It takes a few seconds before Virgil speaks up again.

“Just to be clear, I don’t need you protecting me. I’ve proven that I can… take care of things by myself.”  
Virgil seems to have trouble getting these words out, placing pauses in between and stammering a little. Janus shoots a glance at Virgil’s direction, as he’s awkwardly looking away from him. Janus knows he can’t deny his overall demeanor has indeed changed. As much as he can end up relying on the support of others or lashing out as a result of his worries, Virgil has shown that he’s willing to grow. As conflicted as Janus feels about this turn of events, he can’t bring himself to refute Virgil’s honest words.  
Janus is shaken out of his train of thought, by Virgil grabbing his right wrist and removing the glove. Some of the fabric has gotten stuck in the wound, which makes Janus inhale sharply as Virgil carefully tries to remove it.  
“Geez, just pierced right through,” Virgil comments, squinting his eyes a bit at the sight.  
“Well, you can just leave it on then. It’ll heal by itself so no need-”  
Before Janus can continue, Virgil’s already pulled out some bandages from his pockets and starts wrapping in around his hand tightly. Now Janus finds his own face getting red from embarrassment, switching his eyes between his hand and Virgil as he’s not sure what to do with himself. Virgil’s not approached him like this in what feels like ages, and now it just makes Janus feel weirdly uncomfortable.  
Catching up on the awkwardness of the situation, Virgil quickly finishes up tying the bandage together and leans back on the couch with his arms crossed. 

“Don’t look at me all weird like that! Patton asked me to and… we’re going to need all the help we can get to bring Roman back. So don’t go making assumptions.”  
Speaking considerably more resolute, Virgil turns to look at Janus. In the meantime, Janus’ has put on his glove again and carefully picked up the wet towel, patting it on his forehead a few times against his still blaring headache. With every pat, Janus tries to rid the awkwardness out of him and remind himself that he shouldn’t start making those assumptions. The past is the past. He has tried, and he has failed. Virgil’s not going to change his mind on him so easily.  
Even though, as memory flashes of Virgil coming between them in the Imagination rush back in Janus’ mind, this nostalgic sentiment he felt does too. That’s right, it left him standing frozen for a moment, as he watched Virgil’s back in his attempt to convince Roman. He always remembered Virgil’s back looking so hunched over, shoulders hanging down, hands in his pockets as he walked away and left him alone. This time however, they looked so much more stern and secure, brave even.  
Why does it feel so weird to feel… proud?

“You really have grown.”  
Janus tells him after he throws down the towel on the table, taking another sip from his glass. Virgil stares at him, blushing a little which he is not able to repress. He turns away his head and crosses his arms with a firm shrug. Janus takes one final sip of water, and places it down on the table.  
“I don’t need your approval,” Virgil shrugs, which leaves Janus to chuckle in response.  
“I know, but I felt like I needed to acknowledge it anyway.”

Janus feels his left hand still tingling, twitching from time to time as he clutches it with the other.  
“There might be something we could try, but we’ll need to pass it by the others first.”  
He looks down at his hands, his right glove still torn from Roman’s sword with the bandages now visible through them. He will likely have to resort to extremes when they face Jules again. There are too many risks if he doesn’t.  
“You better not be thinking of using it.”  
Virgil leans in closer, trying to give Janus an intimidating look. Janus can’t help but laugh at this cute but pitiful attempt.  
“Well Virgil, desperate times call for desperate measures.”


	11. We Need A Plan

“I knew you’d like the rats!”

Grinning from ear to ear, Remus can’t stop looking away from Patton who now has three of his rats cuddled on his lap. He’s gently patting all of them an equal amount, and Remus is certain he spots a faint smile and light twinkle in Patton’s eyes.  
“Well, you sure are precious little guys, aren’t you?” Patton giddily tells the rats, blushing at his inability to hide his excitement for animals. Remus knew he’d be able to sway him with his rodent friends. Now just some cookies, and he’ll have Patton crossing over to the Dark Side in no time.  
“They are taking a long time though,” Patton continues as he takes a worried look at the door.  
“Nah they’ll be fine! Unless they’re not and it’s already too late!” Remus jokes, shrugging his shoulders and winking at Patton. He tenses up in response.  
“Please don’t say it like that! Let’s just go and take a look, I’m feeling better now so-“

There’s someone in the hall.  
Before letting Patton finish his sentence, Remus hushes him and shoots a glance towards his door. It’s a familiar scent, a hue he’s experienced before. It reminds Remus of the last time he saw the orange hue enter his room, suffocating him while also making him feel incredibly powerful. It both sucked, and was strangely alluring. He knew better now, but the smell of danger remains hard to resist.  
“I’ll go take a look-sy while you stay put-sy, pops,” he says as he sticks his tongue out at Patton, approaching the door. Assuming the door handle will be blazing hot again, Remus prepares himself to restrain his hand muscles and open the door quickly. As soon as he does, he slips through the door opening and instantly locks the door behind him.  
Which turned out to be a smart decision.

Jules is standing right in front of him, looking considerably more pissed off than before. Out of a sudden instinctive feeling, Remus grabs his Morningstar to slam Jules against the wall behind him. Jules grunts a little in response, but doesn’t drop the grimace from his face.  
“Aw, you want to pay me a visit? Too bad, no hotheads allowed!”  
He’s feeling his Morningstar shaking in his hand, as he’s holding the handle up to Jules’ neck and the spikes right next to his face. That tingly sensation is back again, but Remus really doesn’t feel like giving Jules the satisfaction of seeing him lose control just yet.  
Jules however catches on to Remus’ nervousness immediately, which in turn replaces his grimace with a satisfying grin.

“Won’t you make an exception for me? We used to have so much fun together, remember?” he says, as he grabs hold of Remus’ wrist with one hand. As soon as he does, Remus feels more of those jitteries rush through his being, fueling him to just swing his weapon around and smash everything to bits. But he knows he has to keep fighting it. The more he does, the more chaotic he feels. That’s way more fun that just giving up, anyway.  
“I bet we could have even more fun with Patton included. He’s in there, isn’t he?”  
Jules glances past Remus towards his room’s door.  
“You’re outta luck! Padre wouldn’t even dare set foot in there,” Remus yelled back at him, now unable to keep his voice steady due to the adrenaline and chaos rushing through his body. His shaking has gotten worse, allowing Jules to pull back the Morningstar from his throat.  
“Well, the two of you left together out of Imagination earlier, didn’t you?” Jules asks slyly, raising his eyebrow. 

Remus isn’t capable of holding him back much longer. Voices are screaming at him to smash the door in instead. With all his might he’s trying to concentrate and keep the door locked, but the more his mind slips the more loose the lock gets. Jules must have noticed Remus losing focus, as he’s smiling more confidently now.  
“Let’s just go in, and engage in the chaos.”  
His alluring whisper of a voice makes Remus’ mind go blank, as Jules lets go of his wrist and Remus raises his Morningstar above him ready to swing at anything.

“What’s so threatening about something with no real-world impact?”

A gust of wind suddenly knocks some consciousness back in Remus. As he’s shakingly holding his weapon above him, he’s no longer looking at the brooding orange Side. A faintly familiar figure, but it feels like most of his presence is just blurred out.

“He’ll only have power over you if you let him. If not, he’ll have a much harder time hurting you. You should know.”

That annoying, lecturing tone of voice is one that is definitely not unbeknownst to Remus. He doesn’t know what to make of it, how did he suddenly appear? And what’s he saying about ‘hurting’? He’s not hurting, he’s enjoying this! Right? He always lives for the chaos.

“But not this type of chaos. This’ll not only destroy you, but Thomas as well.”

Before he knows it Remus feels like he has no other choice than to listen. The Side’s words cutting through those instinctual voices and thoughts, releasing his body of those chaotic twitches. He finds himself lowering his weapon, as the figure suddenly flashes clearly in front of him for a split second.  
“…Logan?”  
By the time the name left Remus’ mouth, Logan disappears. Left standing in front of him is Jules, who is now seething furiously and grabbing his head.  
“No no no no no he can’t be doing that…”  
He keeps whispering to himself under his breath, his words slurring together as he seems to be getting more frantic. Remus feels the chaotic energy losing his grip on him, as he slowly repositions himself. In return, Jules aggressively takes hold of Remus’ arm to give him a final intimidating look.  
“This isn’t a win for you. You’ll regret it when I get back.”

Just by the sound of Jules’ voice shaking with frustration, Remus can tell Jules is way less sure of himself than when he first met up with him in Imagination. Even then he could detect a determined fury oozing off of him, but now that attitude of his seems to be wavering. Which made Remus feel more confident in return. Never imagined the dorky nerd would actually help him out.  
Jules lets go of Remus after a few seconds of squeezing his arm, turning away from him further down the hall. Only when he lost him out of sight, does Remus realize Patton has been banging on the other side of the door.

“What’s happening out there?!”  
As Remus unlocks the door and opens it, Patton comes stumbling out of the room as if he’s been standing there listening in on the situation for a while.  
“Seems like our security has been breached,” Remus says as he puts on his best dramatic and low voice, putting a finger on his ear like a secret agent.  
“Time to move to the snake’s hideout.”

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Well Virgil, desperate times call for desperate measures.”

Virgil doesn’t like the way Deceit said that. He makes it appear like he has no other choice. But is that really the best way to go against Jules?  
Though Virgil’s only witnessed it once, it was plenty to determine how harmful that state of Deceit could be. He decided to coin it ‘survival instinct’, an utterly primal sensation that could overpower any other Side to act purely out of the need for self-preservation. Instead of Deceit’s usual backhanded and sneaky tactics, he’d go full on the offense aggressively and directly. He remembers being on the receiving end of it once, probably one of the most terrifying moments he’s lived through. It’s made him realize it can’t be healthy to act out of a primal need for survival alone, blocking out any judgement on morals or voice of reason.  
Wait, ‘reason’? 

Virgil feels like he’s forgetting something, something scratching the back of his mind that he’s just not able to put into words. Though even if he tried, his train of thought is interrupted by Remus kicking open Deceit’s door while dragging Patton along with him.  
Virgil’s body tenses up, as he instantly jots back in the corner of the couch. Deceit lets out a long sigh, rubbing his forehead.  
“Can’t you ever, just knock?”  
Having dragged Patton inside the room now as well, who’s looking a bit shaken up, Remus ignores Deceit’s comment and immediately slams the door shut behind him.  
“Phew, that was close!” Remus exclaims as he pretends to wipe his forehead. Patton sits down next to Virgil, between him and Deceit. He exhales exhaustedly, and Virgil notices his hands shaking a bit.  
“Patton, are you okay?”  
Patton looks up to Virgil, with a concerned and slightly scared look on his face that makes Virgil worry in return.  
“Remus ran into him. Apparently he was looking for me…”  
Patton swallows, sending nerves down Virgil’s spine even more aggressively. The fact that Jules is actively searching for him now, means they probably don’t have a lot of time before they need to act. Deceit seems to be aware of the anxiety oozing from the two of them, since he snaps his fingers to lock his door again after Patton finished speaking.

“It’s better if you stay out of his way then, Patton. The three of us might need to take care of this,” he then continues, as he leans forward on the couch to look Patton in the eye while folding his hands together. Virgil still notices Deceit’s eyebrows twitching a little and his hands tensing up. Bet he’s still not fully healed and ready for battle either.  
“But I should be able to help somehow! I mean, gosh – I’m a big part of the reason we ended up in this mess.”  
Remus sat down on the carpet across the coffee table in the meantime, sitting in his usual pose crossing his legs and hands on his ankles. Looking around the room, Virgil realizes Patton’s in such a similar position as he has been in before. The odd one out in a group of people, still unfamiliar and uncomfortable with them but trying to contribute in his own way. Virgil could almost hear the gears in his mind turning as he kept thinking, what did the others used to say to him then?

“It’s okay, Patton. I do think we need your help on this one, but we got to have a game plan first.”  
All eyes are now turned to Virgil.  
And he instantly regretted speaking up in the first place.  
“My Chemically Imbalanced Romance is right on the money!” Remus yells out as he excitedly points in Virgil’s direction. The oddly familiar nickname makes Virgil feel melancholic, for some reason.  
“But where would we even begin?” Patton sighs defeatedly. “Roman is so entangled in Jules’ grip at this point, and to be honest it’s dangerous to even get near either of them.”  
Virgil sees Deceit leaning back on the couch again, crossing one of his legs over the other. He noticed he picked up the wet towel again inconspicuously, still trying to hide his vulnerabilities. Virgil can’t help but feel annoyed at him for it. Just admit to your weaknesses already, and drop the façade. Why did Virgil even feel the need to help Deceit in the first place? He should’ve just left Deceit to take care of himself, since that’s the way he likes it.  
“We need to separate them,” Deceit then speaks up, fixing all eyes on him now. “The way Jules acts, his influence and power is strongest when he’s able to disperse it through other Sides in his vicinity. I can’t imagine you haven’t sensed it, have you Patton? Getting irritable or restless, a rush of anger rushing through your body? Or in our case…”  
Deceit takes the towel of his forehead, shooting a glance at Remus then Virgil.  
“…primal instincts taking over.”

Virgil has to look away. He can’t deny that he’s been feeling the looming presence of his dark persona more and more. Even now, he can sense his hand resting on his shoulder, pinching to let Virgil know he’s still there. He was afraid of getting taken over by that primal fear, when he stood face to face with Jules. To his surprise, something made him remain conscious and vigilant. Come to think of it, this is the first time he’s noticed Anxiety since he’s been in Deceit’s room.  
No, Deceit can’t be the reason.  
He’s moved passed that. He is no longer relying on him and his white lies. He shouldn’t, right? On the other hand, denying him completely somehow feels unfair towards Roman. We all make mistakes, no one’s perfect. That’s what he said, after all. If Virgil doesn’t give Deceit a chance now, he’d just be lying to Roman. But hasn’t he moved past Deceit already? Why does he turn back to being around him? Wasn’t there anyone else who he could turn to for support when he ever needed to? 

“I can’t believe you’re all forgetting we have another dork who could need a helping hand!” Remus exclaims, breaking the tension hanging in the room.  
“Logan’s still here too, y’know. Jules is keeping him hidden somewhere.”  
That’s when it all clicked for Virgil.  
Logan.  
How could he have just forgotten about him?  
Wasn’t he planning to talk to him initially?  
Apparently the others had the same revelation, as Patton and Deceit both look at Remus with wide eyes and clearly taken aback.

“When did you see him?!” Patton jumps up from the couch, staring straight at Remus with nothing but intense worry written on his face.  
“Well, when Jules went all triggering on me and getting on my nerves, Logan just appeared to calm those nerves back down. And our Orange boy didn’t seem to like that, ‘cause he went and left right after.” Unlike him, Remus kept a straight face as he was talking, only shrugging his shoulders from time to time.  
“And Roman wasn’t with him?” Deceit joins in to ask Remus. Patton remains standing up, facing away from the two still at the couch. His shoulders are now hanging low, and Virgil can see him clasping his hands firmly. He walks passed Virgil to start pacing around the room a little.  
Remus just looks away dejectedly. Guess that’s a no.

“Then that’s the way to get them both back.”  
Patton stops pacing to turn to Deceit, along with Virgil. Deceit’s holding his chin, which Virgil has come to recognize as his scheming face.  
“We need to get them separated, split up and take them both on at the same time.”  
“Are you serious?!”  
Now it’s Virgil’s turn to get up from the couch. Why would he want everyone separated? Is he planning something again? He can’t actually be in cahoots with Jules on this, can he?  
“Janus may have a point, kiddo. Last time we were all together, it didn’t end well…” Patton replies in a soft voice, trying to sounds sure of himself.  
“Well, when we’re in even fewer numbers, who knows what could happen,” Virgil almost yells back at Patton, but manages to keep his voice at a decent volume. Screaming and getting angry is not going to help, he has now learned.  
Patton adresses Virgil again, leaning his hand on the couch next to him.  
“What do you say we both go to Logan and talk him out of it? I’m sure that, if it’s the two of us, we-”

“You shouldn’t, Patton,” Deceit interrupts him. “Now that we know Jules is actively searching for you…”  
“But it’s my fault Logan ended up locked away by him in the first place!”  
“Listen-” Getting frustrated, Deceit gets up from the couch too, only to immediately stumble and close his eyes frowning. Virgil sees him attempting to raise his hand towards his forehead again, though seems to stop himself for the sake of his façade. Virgil almost finds himself reaching out his own hand to support him. No, if he wants to keep on playing the tough guy, he should be able to keep standing on his own.  
Patton falls silent, looking at Deceit’s pathetic attempt at keeping himself standing up straight. Virgil can’t help but shoot a few glances in his direction as well. Meanwhile, Remus just looks annoyed, now crossing his arms.  
“I'm fine. Patton, try and talk to Roman instead. You two need to discuss some matters anyway.”  
Virgil isn’t sure if he likes the whole ‘leader’ role Deceit decided to take on. As Remus speaks up, he realizes he’s not alone in his worries.

“Who made you the one in charge?”  
Remus sounded quite threatening as he spoke, glaring at him judgingly. He’s still not gotten over his grudge against Deceit from earlier, clearly.  
“I’ll go take on my little brother. In the end you can only trust in yourself to take care of something, anyway,” Remus continues, shooting another judgmental look towards Deceit who frowns in response. It’s been a while since Virgil’s heard such snarky remarks coming from Remus. Not that he’s unjustified.

“Well Virgil…”  
Deceit then turns to him, which makes him jump as he wasn’t ready to be suddenly called out.  
“If you’re that worried I will try and trick you, why don’t you keep me company and head towards Jules together?”  
There’s his annoying smirky grin again. For some reason, Virgil still feels this faint need to want to be around him. Be it because he suspects him, be it because he needs someone to-  
Whatever, doesn’t matter. He feels conflicted leaving Roman alone again, but at least he can put some faith in Patton. He genuinely seems to want to make amends with Roman. Who knows, he might be the one to talk him out of it.  
Plus, he’s very worried about Logan. He was always there to calm Virgil down and filter out irrational thoughts whenever he needed it. And he feels like he hasn’t been giving Logan much back. Even though he doesn’t know how Jules got a hold of him or where he’s hiding, Virgil feels responsible for helping him get out of it.

“So, seems like the teams are made! Let’s get going!”  
Remus jumps up from the ground, considerably fidgety and immediately grabbing a firm hold of his Morningstar.  
“Time’s running out.”  
As ominous as Remus makes it sounds, it helps Virgil find the determination to get moving. Teaming up with Deceit wasn’t his ideal pick, but if Deceit can keep Anxiety at bay while Virgil can keep an eye on any suspicious moves from Deceit, it’s mutually beneficial.  
Moving towards the door, he can’t help but feel nerves going up and down his spine again. They’re really going through with it, and he’s not allowed to make any mistakes now. Otherwise they might never come back.  
Suddenly, a gentle touch on his right arm seems to absorb that unwanted anxiety from his being. He turns his head right, meeting Patton who’s trying to reassure him with a careful smile.  
“We can do this. We’ll bring them back.”  
Virgil nods.

Yeah, they will.


	12. Counting on You

“We can do this. We’ll bring them back.” 

Leaving Virgil some final words of encouragement, Patton turns his back on him and Janus to follow Remus into the Imagination. He can’t help but have a bad feeling about this. Just like him, he wasn’t sure if splitting up was the best idea. Doesn’t it always end up badly in scary movies? Not that he would know, but he is reminded of a conversation Roman and Virgil were having on the topic the other day.  
That seems so long ago now.

“Welp, I’m sure we’re all gonna die now,” Remus sighs, and Patton sees him shrugging his shoulders indifferently.  
“If horror movie logic is anything to go by, anyway,” he jokingly adds, though this doesn’t exactly help settle down the nerves Patton’s experiencing.  
As much as he tried to comfort Virgil back there, he might have rather been trying to comfort himself. He hasn’t spoken to Roman at all since the argument, and his fuzzy memories of being chained up by Jules implies he hadn’t got a chance to approach Roman then either. But judging from what Patton’s seen of him in the Imagination earlier, he’s ashamed to say he scared him. He seemed completely lost in pure rage. Patton remembers how Roman stared him in the eyes shortly, before Remus went in and blocked his attack. It really appeared like he wanted to hurt him.  
But how could he blame Roman for feeling that way, honestly? Patton is just now coming to realize how much he’s been hurting and ignoring Roman all this time. He’s afraid he might not even consider his apology, even if he tried. What is he supposed to say?

“Just let that ‘father’ instinct of yours do the talking, overthinking isn’t gonna help anyone,” Remus suddenly speaks up, as the two reach a halt in front of Remus’ door. Like he could hear Patton’s thoughts.  
“But what if it doesn’t work? What if he isn’t able to listen?” Patton responds panicked, feeling the anxiety welling up in him again.  
“I’ll tire him out a little first, play bait and decoy,” Remus grins at Patton, oddly confident. Patton is surprised how self-assured Remus sounds; that’s always been a trait he admired so much in Roman before he started doubting himself.  
“What makes you say that?” Patton asks him in return.  
“Didn’t you notice?,” Remus responds a bit scoldingly. “Roman was clearly out to get rid of me before! He’ll take the bait for sure, if it’s me.”  
Remus places his hand on the door handle, but then pauses for a moment to address Patton again.  
“I’ll be counting on ya for support, padre!”  
Patton looks back at him, slightly embarrassed. He wants to feel confident too, but truth is that he’s hardly ever felt more insecure. Everyone’s expecting him to step up and prove he can fix this. He can’t afford to make any slip-ups again – just make sure he acts honestly, with good intentions.  
“Yeah, same here.”  
“Aw are you starting to like me now?” Remus now gushes over Patton’s response, making him blush.  
“W-We should go in!" Patton curtly tells him off, staring back at the door. With a short puff Remus swings it open. And an oppressing aura instantly smacks both of them back a few steps.

Disarray.  
That’s the best way to describe the Imagination space right now.  
An enormous castle is lurking in the background, though it appears to be dressed with faded banners and dark red fog clogging around it. As they carefully walk inside Patton notices how the space has turned into a landscape of hills and trees, though most of them seemed so rotten and stripped of any greenery that they could barely be called trees anymore. There were cracks scattered around the ground haphazardly, from which Patton can smell fire or smoke emerging. Despite illustrating a forest-like environment, the Imagination was branched off by the same barren sturdy walls that they saw in the Imagination hall earlier. The walls make the space feel both overwhelmingly huge, and instill a claustrophobic atmosphere at the same time. As if they have nowhere left to flee.  
Even Remus seems taken aback by the state of the Imagination now. It’s like it no longer belongs to anyone, while simultaneously it still feels taken over by one overpowering force. 

“You stay hidden, I’ll draw him out.”  
Remus sounds determined, as he takes his position in the middle of an open clearing among the barren trees. Patton doesn’t even hesitate to take cover behind them, watching him from a safe but acceptable distance. He feels his heart racing, as this might be their only real chance at getting Roman back. And similarly, Logan.  
Patton lays his hand on his chest, focusing on his heart pumping while Remus whistles to himself.  
It’ll be okay, it’ll be okay.  
Continuing to positively reinforce this, Patton quietly awaits Roman’s arrival in the forest’s clearing while the oppressive aura is close to smothering him.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“I need you to promise me something.”

The door to Logan’s room, now dispersing an ominous dense damp from between the gaps, is slowly coming into Janus’ sight. He takes a breath after he speaks, standing still a couple of meters away from the door. Virgil looks at him questionably, raising his eyebrows a little but seemingly eager to listen.  
Janus takes another few seconds to order his thoughts.  
How could Virgil possibly be able to stand up straight, considering his usual state during intense moments like this?  
Janus himself feels like he could tumble to the floor at any moment. The cut in his hand started bleeding essence again and aching, like it’s getting infected. His head is pounding, some sort of tunnel vision blocks out a conscious awareness of his surroundings except for the oppressing aura coming from the room in front of him. Though he hasn’t even entered yet, Jules’ influence is making the primal voices in him scream and proliferate through his entire body.

“What is it..?” Virgil asks impatiently, scanning Janus from top to bottom. He’s trying his best to not let his demeanor falter, so hopefully Virgil hasn’t noticed the amount his body is trembling.  
“Stop me when it gets out of control.”  
Somehow, Janus was able to speak in a steady voice.  
“Well, you’re not gonna let it get that far. Are you?” Virgil responds rhetorically, as he clearly expects Janus to agree with him.  
“You’re the only one who knows how,” Janus continues his appeal, without addressing the doubts Virgil raises.  
“So I’m counting on you.”  
“Hey!”  
Yelling out his frustration, he pushes Janus against his shoulder which makes him take a step back. Not enough to make him stumble – in fact, it kind of broke off his tunnel vision for a second.  
“Take some responsibility. I’m doing my part, and so are you. Don’t shove this all onto me, okay?”  
Starting out his sentence rather determined, Virgil gradually lowers his voice and softens his tone. Otherwise he’d be falling back into old patterns again. Well, Janus truthfully isn’t really one to talk.

“But fine.”  
Virgil answers and sighs, frowning a little as he looks down at his feet. Though still, his reaction was plenty to clear up some of the uncertainties clouding Janus’ mind. At least he had a backup in case he gets unmanageable.  
Just as Janus is about to continue walking, Virgil takes a step forward first and leads the way towards the door. Again Janus finds himself staring at Virgil’s back, shoulders not tensed up against his neck nor hunched over. Oddly reassuring.  
Virgil takes a deep breath before placing his hand on the handle. As soon as he does however, he doesn’t need to put in much effort to open it since the door seems to have been ajar already.

There he is.  
Leaning over Logan’s desk with his back turned to them, Jules seems to be in both an agitated and vulnerable state. The best opportunity they’re going to get.  
Roman is nowhere to be seen. Apparently he took the bait. Janus figured he’d try to go to find Remus, since Roman’s desire to get rid of him must still be a strong drive behind his fury.  
Jules turns his head to look at the both of them. He’s glaring at them with eyes wide open, an exhausted expression on his face and breathing heavily.  
“So that’s what you’re scheming. Breaking us up for a two-versus-one, huh?” Jules speaks in his overly degrading tone of voice, though the pauses and sighs in between implies that he’s not as confident as he’d like them to think he is. He pushes himself back from the desk, now facing them full-front.

“We know you’ve trapped Logan away somewhere, so…” Virgil tries to keep his voice from stammering, locking his gaze with Jules’s. Keeping his eyes locked on Jules as well, he sees Virgil swallow from the corner of his eye.  
“…you let him go now before-”  
“Took you long enough to find out.”  
Jules interrupts him, pulling up his nose and squinting his eyes at Virgil.  
“And frankly, I think Logan’s just about fed up with being ignored. Just like our insecure little prince.”  
Perfect, Jules keeps on monologuing. Gives Janus the window he needs to inconspicuously move his hands behind his back, and remove his glove from his left hand. His right is still hurting from the infected wound, making it difficult to move his fingers quickly and fluently to grab hold of the fabric of his left glove. Meanwhile, he’s making sure to fidget as little as possible, repositioning himself occasionally to hide his arms moving.  
“You’re wrong," Virgil speaks up, noticing Janus preparing his attack. "I’ve seen them call out for help. You can’t keep them under your spell fore-”  
“JUST YOU WATCH!!!”

Jules suddenly screams, flames bursting out from all around him and lightening up the room a violent shade of orange. It’s like the space expanded ten-fold, while also feeling incredibly suffocating. In the blink of an eye, faster than Janus is able to register, Jules has conjured up a metal bat and takes an aggressive upper-hand swing at Virgil. Unable to dodge, Janus witnesses Virgil getting hit between his neck and left shoulder – so hard, he’s slammed against the floor.  
Jules then locks his gaze with Janus instead.

But that’s the last thing he sees.  
Those firing eyes piercing through his being, as Janus feels his heart almost exploding out of his chest and the left glove sliding off his hand.  
He senses the snake slithering across his palm, growing bigger and longer as it twirls around his arm.  
After which, his mind goes blank and body goes numb.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The sword feels heavy, as Roman drags it along on the floor while making his way to Imagination. His instinct is telling him Remus must be there, so he’s simply letting it move his body for him again. Jules is not going to like he left the room, but then again he should’ve locked it better. Roman didn’t have a choice but to follow his instinct, after all.  
Or did he?

For some reason, while still clouded by primal feelings directing his muscles, his mind feels relatively clear compared to the last time he walked along this path. He catches himself thinking that there could be a chance, a small chance, he’s able to reach out.  
But what good would it do? They’ve probably all given up on him. Jules has told him this time and time again. That he’s the only one who could understand him, and give him what he needs to redeem himself. Despite this, Roman can’t deny how liberating it feels to be away from Jules for now, like he’s able to breathe again. On the other hand, it’s frightening for a cowardly fake prince like himself to walk along a dark path alone. 

His door leading to Imagination illuminates like a light at the end of the pathway. Standing still in front of the door, Roman senses his hand wavering over the handle. He shouldn’t feel worthy to even make a conscious decision here. His instinct tells him what to do; he should stop trying to gain agency and risk screwing everything up like he always does. But he can’t shake the clarity from his mind now, whether he likes it or not. Maybe it will fade as he comes eye to eye with his brother. One way to find out.  
With one clean swing, he opens the door.  
And a familiar warm aura greets him.  
The Imagination isn’t the same as he remembered. It seems confused, not sure who’s imaginative powers it's supposed to respond to. An uncomfortably melancholic building looms in the background. The damp from the cracks in the ground's soil lure Roman towards the clearing in this dense forest, that the Imagination has turned into. 

“Hey there, little brother.”  
Remus on the other hand, looks exactly like Roman envisioned him before.  
Morningstar resting on his shoulder, grinning at him.  
Mockingly, most definitely.  
He wants to be assured he can take him on this time.  
No distractions, just the two of them.  
But why does Roman still feel so conflicted?  
Is it because Jules is not here? Should he listen to his instinct, get rid of that icky consciousness that’s crying out for agency? Despite his efforts he can’t, it isn’t fading away at all.

It’s been a while since he felt this alone.  
Seems like the only one he can rely on now, is himself.  
Which is likely the scariest of all.


	13. In Too Deep

It all worked.  
Without Jules noticing, Logan was able to manipulate the lock just right, so that Roman could open it and leave the room.  
Faced with Remus’s eccentric outbursts, Logan could channel his familiar rational and logical thinking to make Remus aware of his presence.  
And now, Logan has kept Jules busy enough by being at the receiving end of his complaints and insults, to allow Janus and Virgil a chance to enter.  
He isn’t useless yet. Even from within this barren void of incoming oblivion.

But he isn’t hopelessly optimistic, either.  
Jules was going to fight back with a vengeance, especially now that he’s driven into a corner. In spite of Janus and Virgil joining forces – which he honestly hadn’t imagined feasible to begin with – they were still at a disadvantage.  
Apparently though, they possess certain abilities that even Logan wasn’t privy to before.  
As Virgil received a tough strike from Jules’s metal bat, Janus started radiating a glowing yellow light around his entire silhouette. Now he is lifting up his left arm, and Logan can see an increasingly growing snake wrapping itself around it. While Janus drops one of his gloves on the floor, the snake opens its mouth wide – showing off rows of seemingly countless sharp teeth – and viciously bites in Janus’s left hand.  
Logan has never seen that hand without his glove before. It seems tattered, full of scales, scarred even. Not entirely human. But Logan isn’t able to look away, as the scales on his hand and face seem to multiply to cover his entire body.

Why is Jules so transfixed by this?  
It’s as if he stopped dead in his tracks, though Logan hears Virgil still grunting on the floor and struggling to get back up. Jules has dropped the metal bat as well, and seems mesmerized by Janus’s transformation. And by extension, Logan also cannot look at anything else. Perhaps it’s this exhibition of an unleashed power, which Jules is so desperately striving for, that makes him unable to move.  
And it’s working in their favor, as the continuously growing snake bites Jules in his shoulder to make him lose balance. Janus then quickly conjures up a non-corporeal arm to slam Jules to the other corner of the room.  
The walls around him start cracking, as are the confines of Logan’s white bubble. Between the cracks he can see both a violent orange damp-like substance, and one all too familiar dark blue mist.  
Leaving him little time to get back on his feet, Janus sends his now 10-meter long snake to attack Jules again. Anticipating it, Jules tries to block himself with his right arm, which the snake immediately crushes in its mouth.

With every hit Jules receives, Logan feels some of his own senses coming back to him. The numbness is slowly fading away; even the chains no longer keep him from standing up. Breaths of air flow through the cracks in his white prison, though it also allows the suffocating orange damp to fill in.  
Just as he senses control in his right arm returning, Jules sets off another surge of flames throughout his limbs, burning the snake’s mouth and causing it to release him from its grip. Within seconds, Jules stomps his foot down on the snake’s neck, sending shock waves throughout the room. It’s like he is setting the whole room ablaze along with it.  
Meanwhile, Janus seems frozen in place. While twitching his hands occasionally and moving around his left hand in swaying movements, he hasn’t moved his feet an inch from his position. The damage his snake is receiving does appear to affect him, however. From Jules blurred vision, Logan can see yellow essence starting to drip from his mouth, as well as bruises appearing around his neck.

Virgil gives Jules little time to keep his foot down, as he swings the metal bat back at him after supposedly picking it up earlier. Anyone else than Jules wielding it however, would likely have their hand burning at the handle. Judging from Virgil’s flinching expression, he’s indeed having trouble holding on.  
Despite this, he lands a hard swing against the back of Jules’s neck. 

A huge crack suddenly breaks another piece off Logan’s white prison. One of the chains shackling him evaporates into thin air. He’s overcome by a rush of restlessness in his body, his vocal cords in his throat tensing up ready to yell out to them.  
But for some reason, not a single word leaves Logan’s mouth. Will they listen this time? Has he seen any proof they would? After all, Jules wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Logan finalizing a deal with him. What makes him think they would even want to listen to him now? The more his solemn but secure white void starts to break apart, the more resignation starts to spill into Logan’s mind.

His train of thought is broken by the snake – now grown even larger and wider, almost encompassing the entire room by his length alone – snapping its mouth into Jules’ shoulder again. With incredible force, it viciously slams him against another wall, almost destroying the whole room in its path. Afterwards the snake wraps its body around Jules tightly, holding him against the wall while restricting him from struggling to come loose.  
“Now’s your chance to escape, Logan!” Virgil screams at him, his echo resonating through Logan’s shattered white void. A part of him feels inclined to join Virgil, but it’s as if he is still not satisfied. Has he even made his point clear? Will everything just go back to the same interactions, which were leading to extreme situations like this in the first place? Will everything have been for nothing?  
“We got him wrapped up tight..,” Virgil continues, “..so hurry up and come out! We need your help to get Roman back too!”

“What makes you think he WANTS to go back?” Jules suddenly speaks up, his throat sore and struggling to breathe.  
Logan’s heart suddenly starts beating harder. Why is he getting nervous?  
“What are you talking about?” Virgil replies with a sneer in his voice.  
“How do you think… I got in to begin with?”  
Logan knows he usually isn’t one to feel nervous. Why should he? But for whatever reason, he can sense his heart beating in his neck. Virgil looks at him with a confused expression. 

“You’ve been ignoring him for so long… when all he wanted was to help. You all come and butt in… with your yelling and accusing… No wonder I’m able to have so much fun with all of you.”  
With every word Jules says, Logan sees the cracks of his void slowly filling up and shutting him away again. Virgil is disappearing from his vision. He feels the shackles on his ankles tightening. Maybe it was all futile.  
Janus is increasingly straining his hand, commanding the snake to wrap its body around Jules tighter and tighter. In his numb state, he fails to notice Jules was able to wriggle one of his arms free.  
Virgil inches a few steps closer, the bat dropping on the floor.  
“Logan, is that true? Did you let him in?”

Even without Virgil acknowledging it, Logan could tell his remark was meant accusatorily. It must be. They never truly understood the intentions behind Logan’s motivations. Yet, he can’t help feeling guilty. How come he still feels the need to atone? Did he do something wrong? Is there something he’s missing in the equation, that everyone else seems to understand except him? And he’s supposed to be the most knowledgeable one of all of them.  
If he could just explain it to Virgil, explain his reasoning. Out of everyone, Virgil is usually the most understanding towards him. He might realize why he let Jules in, and how they wish to resolve it.  
Before Logan knew it, he makes Jules stretch out his freed arm to hold out his hand in front of Virgil’s. 

“Here, let me give you some insight. So you can understand.”  
He doesn’t even know anymore if that was Jules speaking, or Logan himself.  
As he feels Virgil’s fingers hesitantly touching the palm of his hand, out of the corner of the room Janus suddenly yells out.  
“Don’t!”

Too late.  
Jules violently grabs Virgil’s wrist, drawing drips of purple essence as he clutches his nails into his arm. Logan can only direct his eyes on Virgil now, as the rest of their surroundings are gradually shrouded in darkness.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Everything else seems to fade away, and it’s just him and his brother.

Remus has been looking forward to this fated rematch between them, though admittedly he is confused in what respect he’s been anticipating it. Sure, he’d love every opportunity to mess with Roman and answer the ultimate question of who’s the strongest twin. But Remus is feeling something else, too. A weird icky feeling, one that reminds him of the past.  
“It’s about time you came! We weren’t done beating each other up, were we?”  
Refocusing his attention to the situation in front of him, Remus puts on his usual frolicky and giddy voice. He swings his Morningstar from his shoulder, grasping it with both hands ready to strike. It’s a relief Orange boy won’t get in the way this time.

“…Let’s just get this over with.”  
Roman’s remark catches Remus off guard for a second. He sounds so … defeated. The fight hasn’t even started yet. At the very least, Roman had some fire in him when Jules was with them. Now it seems like he just lost all of it.  
Remus clasps his hands firmer around his weapon’s handle, gritting his teeth. Roman doesn’t even have the guts to come and fight his brother with respect. It’s like he doesn’t care. If that’s the case, he’ll just have to whack some fighting spirit into him.

“Coward.”  
Spitting out his resentment, Remus charges at Roman with a swing from above. At the last second Roman is able to dodge to the right, stabbing his sword near Remus’s face. It sharply slides across his cheek, leaving behind a deep cut. Quickly switching over his Morningstar to his left hand, Remus slams it against his brother’s right side which sends him tripping forward a good few steps.  
Faster than expected though, Roman responds to Remus’s attack with one of his own. Slaying his sword back at him, Remus blocks it just in time.  
This is the kind of adrenaline he was waiting for. Now to just tire him out as much as possible.

“I know you still have it in you,” Remus grins at him, while Roman appears to actively look away from him. If Remus could just meet his eyes and receive a glimpse of that burning passion of his staring back at him, he’d get rid of that icky feeling all together. What’s this empty husk of a prince he’s fighting against?  
…Careful, it’s pop’s job to get emotional.  
“C’mon! Show me if all that training with your new flame was worth something!” Remus further tries to provoke his brother. Receiving little response, Remus pushes Roman’s sword down with his Morningstar using enough force to have its tip touching the ground. Stepping on the blade, he uses it to jump off it and onto his brother’s shoulder – from which he launches himself towards one of the barren trees nearby.  
Recovering from his brother’s surprising escape route, Roman turns around to see Remus dangling upside down from the tree’s branch. Looking at his brother like this, reminds Remus of a familiar scene several weeks ago. 

“Why don’t you turn that frown upside down?”  


He needs to get Roman’s full attention. Remus is feeling restlessness and anxiety filling up in his body, as long as he doesn’t get the recognition he deserves. Roman isn’t completely there; he’s stuck in his head. It was the same look he saw him wear back then. And it annoys the sh*t out of him.  
“A hero wouldn’t back away from a battle, would he?!”  
He made it sound more desperate than he intended, but that’s fine. Just look for any trigger to get Roman pumped again. Otherwise this’ll just be another useless drag.

Apparently it worked, ‘cause Roman meets his gaze with a pair of piercing eyes. They were different from the last time they fought here, but filled with fire nonetheless.  
Ready to swing back up to sit back straight on the tree branch, Remus is surprised to suddenly hear the roots of the tree crack from under him. Roman had cut the tree clean in half. Now slowly falling towards the ground, Remus loops off the branch to land back on his feet. Finding his brother right underneath him as he jumps, he holds the Morningstar above his head while aiming for Roman’s.  
In a split second, a flash of red blurs Remus’s vision, as he suddenly finds his brother having dodged his attack. With Roman standing right behind him, Remus is but a fraction of a second too late from blocking the sword’s blade slicing through his arm.  
But his green essence dripping along the rims of the sword only fuels Remus’s drive to keep fighting.  
He answers Roman’s attack with a vicious grin, as he smacks him with his Morningstar from the bottom-right. It sends Roman flying back a good few meters, closing in on the edge of the forest’s clearing and surrounding himself with more of the forest’s bare trees.  
Swiftly adapting to this new environment, Roman slices down another tree and pushes it towards Remus. See, this is the kind of quick out-of-the-box thinking Remus was looking for in a fight!  
Unable to contain his excitement, Remus smashes the falling tree into two huge chunks by putting all his energy in one swing. The wood shatters, loose pieces flying around everywhere obscuring his view. Again, his brother seems to make use of this, appearing out of the dust by kicking Remus in his stomach with some incredible power. Only for a moment, Remus could see the blazing red glare in Roman’s eyes. Maybe he still got some passion left in him, after all.

Falling back onto the forest’s clearing, Remus can’t help but giggle as he gets back up and stand still for a moment. He feels the usual tingly sensations he gets from a good thrill, returning to him. As Roman walks up to him again, he just swings his Morningstar at Roman with full force, without any thinking or coordination. Not that he generally uses those, anyway.  
Roman blocks it with his arm, though still gets shoved to the side a little in the process. Now Roman is also finally getting some scratches on him; red essence spilling on the grass below which paints it red instantly. As Remus gets ready to kick his brother towards the ground, he just now starts noticing how out of breath he is. His heart is beating like crazy, and his vision starts to blur.  
But it doesn’t matter. On the contrary.  
Bringing his left foot up to Roman’s chest, he kicks him down on the ground with every ounce of strength he could muster in his leg. The ground underneath even starts cracking around them. Along with orange hue spilling out from below the surface.

And it once again enters Remus’s mouth and nostrils, unable to keep himself from inhaling it. His limbs start shaking again, but he can’t stop the urge to fight. He’ll show him what he gets for underestimating him.  
Roman tries to swing his sword in his right hand towards Remus’s face, but he’s easily able to catch it with his left hand. Though the essence is gushing out and the muscles in his hand tense up, Remus hardly even feels the pain. He grabs a stronger hold of the sword, and yanks it out of Roman’s hand to toss it away from them both.   
Arms trembling, Remus raises the Morningstar above his head, ready to strike down.  
Until he meets Roman’s eyes.

Fear.  
As soon as he realizes he’s lost his sword, Remus sees Roman breaking into a state of panic. Like a deer in headlights.  
What is this?  
Where’s that fire of him gone?  
Was it just a ‘front’, like Janus keeps saying?  
Instantly, Remus feels like his arms can’t support the weight of his Morningstar anymore. Wondering why Roman just got so terrified of him, scenes start flashing in front of Remus’s eyes again. Stop thinking! It hasn’t ever done him any good. But before he realizes it, Remus has his weapon dangling next to his side.  
“You’re really just a coward.”  
Right as he got those words leaving his mouth, not entirely conscious, he lifts his foot off Roman’s chest and wobbles back a few steps himself. Why is he now the one who’s unable to move? Where did all that pump and excitement go he was feeling seconds ago?!

Left standing confused, his mind racing, Remus hears Roman hurriedly crawling back towards his sword. Just a scared little puppy, is all he is. At the core. Or when he’s with Remus, at least. Whatever happened to that annoying, misplaced but characteristic fire he had in him, that he used to envy his little brother for? He shouldn’t be getting sentimental, in the first place. Replace those icky feelings with smashing and fighting and yelling and stomping. No room for anything else.  
When Remus looks up, Roman is holding his sword again with his back turned to Remus. His shoulders are shaking, and Remus hears him taking heavy breaths.  
He’s not done yet. They’re not finished yet. He’s barely even gotten warmed up. He’ll show his little brother who’s boss.

But Remus’s body is telling him otherwise. As much as he wants to deny it, he can barely keep his heartbeat under control anymore and he can’t catch his breath. The slice on his cheek and hands start bleeding and dripping essence more heavily now, soaking the grass underneath him with a darker shade of green.  
“What the f*ck even happened to you?”  
Remus just starts talking automatically. He doesn’t even understand what he’s trying to say, but he can’t keep the words from leaving his mouth anyway.  
“No prince would ever act the way you’re acting. Compared to you, I’m more of a hero than you’ll ever be!”  
Remus hears he’s choking up, as if all of his built-up frustration and resentment is spilling out into the Imagination at once. He’s taking slow steps towards Roman, though his legs feel like they’re on autopilot.  
“What makes you think… you have the right to believe in a shady prick like him? Haven’t you learned anything?!”  
He could very well be screaming into a void, ‘cause Roman’s not responding or giving a hint he’s even listening. He’s just standing there shivering, hiding from him.  
“You have any pride left in that husk of yours?”  
Stop talking, and start smashing. Remus knows he won’t ever listen.  
“You honestly think you got a chance against me with that pathetic attitude? You piss me off. Stupid of me to even-”

“I will defeat you.”

Roman turns around; his face is facing downwards, but he’s holding his sword vertically in front of him. His legs slightly apart from each other, he wraps his hand more closely around his sword’s handle. He may look determined, but Remus knows now it’s all just a façade. Without his flashy gear and costume, he’s just a coward.  
Remus hears footsteps approaching from afar, faster and faster. But he’s consciously attempting to block them out.  
“I don’t believe you,” Remus spits back at him scornfully. “Why would you if you can’t even-”  
“BECAUSE I DON’T KNOW WHAT ELSE TO DO!”  
Letting out a desperate cry, Roman runs towards his brother. Some sense of a fire in his eyes is back, but a solemn one. It’s all fake, after all.  
But before anything happens, a light blue figure moves in between the two almost-clashing brothers.

“Hey kiddo. Let’s calm down, okay?”


	14. I Made A Mistake

“Hey Logan, wait up!”

Out of the blue, Virgil finds himself in the hallway. He just manages to catch Logan walking around the corner. He turns around to look at him. Logan always has this anticipating expression whenever he’s asked something, which Virgil has always found humorous.  
Though his body is moving towards Logan, Virgil feels as if he’s not in control. Like he’s just replaying a memory, leaving him with a weird sense of deja-vu. Though he’s not able to stop himself from going through the motions anyway.

“What is it?” Logan asks, raising his eyebrow.  
“I… need your advice on something.” Virgil fumbles with the strings of his hoodie, tying and untying them again. He remembers how nervous he was for this moment, even though he was just fussing over something that wasn’t even worth worrying about.  
“And what would this ‘something’ be?”  
Logan just keeps staring at Virgil, waiting for him to raise the issue.  
“Well, I told Thomas to text his friend he can’t come tonight, right? But that’s like, the third time in a row he’s canceled. And it’s not even for a good reason, I mean he shouldn’t even be feeling tired right? He’s just been idling around all day…”  
Logan shakes his head a little and closes his eyes for a second, frowning. Clearly overwhelmed by the incoherent information dump Virgil just laid on him.

“Hang on, what are you trying to say? Yes, Thomas canceled because he was feeling exhausted. What is the issue here?” Logan lists off his usual rounds of confused questions.  
Virgil pulls the strings of his hoodie firmly, feeling it tugging the back of his neck.  
“You know, after canceling something for three times in a row…”  
“Well, three times in the last month actually, but go on.”  
This is the first barrier Virgil has to break through before getting to the real conversation: clarify and articulate.  
“Whatever. They must be getting annoyed at Thomas at this point, right? They didn’t even text back after Thomas replied, and-” Virgil recalls the rambling he used to do, like here. He usually feels most comfortable talking to Logan about issues like this, since he doesn’t try to sugarcoat like Patton or shout over him (in song occasionally, even) like Roman.  
“Virgil, you’ve known that friend for a while, don’t you? Do you really believe they would get fed up with Thomas because of that?” Logan crosses his arms and tilts his head a little as he speaks.  
“I don’t know? I mean, I’d find it reasonable if they would. But if I messed it up because I made Thomas decline, then…”  
Logan lets out a big sigh, readjusting his glasses and giving Virgil a firm but reassuring look.  
“You can’t possibly know what’s going through their head at the moment, no? If you simply have faith in the relationship and past interactions with them, I’m sure you can filter out these unrealistic fears of yours.”  
Virgil remembers how he felt like Logan was scolding him then, but through his gentle and articulating tone of voice, he could tell Logan was only trying his best to settle his nerves. Wasn't it the fifth time in that week alone Virgil had come to Logan for nonsensical advice like that? Why does he keep relying on him so much?

“Do you want to know why?”

Out of nowhere, Logan raises his question as if he was answering Virgil’s thoughts. His heart skipped a beat, and he got this off feeling that something was not in line with how he remembered this scenario going.  
Logan’s wearing the same expression as before, but somehow Virgil could feel some chills going down his spine as he tries to answer.  
“…About what?”  
“This constant dependency you’re looking for, of course.” Logan uses his general matter-of-fact and partly oblivious voice, the one he usually hears him speak whenever he takes anything too literally. But now, instead of chuckling, Virgil feels like he’s freezing up. It seems unusually accusatory, the way he’s talking. And the next sentence only confirms that further.

“Because it’s in your nature.” 

A certain glare appears in Logan’s eyes, one that is all too familiar. As the ominous glare seems to pull Virgil in, his surroundings gradually fade away till he’s left in a pitch black void.  
“I’m disappointed in you,” Logan continues, while an demonic voice can be heard echoing underneath.  
“You keep crawling back to me asking for help, never learning to stand on your own feet.”  
Logan’s presence is slowly growing more brooding and overwhelming, his expression getting darker and the demonic voice echoing stronger. Virgil feels incredibly small and hopeless, looking up against the daunting figure in front of him. Breaking out in a sweat and struggling to breathe, he feels like he’s back in the darkest corner of his room.  
“If you had only done something in return, listened to what I wanted to say, convinced the others…”  
As Logan approaches Virgil further, he firmly grabs hold of his wrist digging his nails into it.  
“...This all might’ve never happened.”  
He could scream. He could struggle. He could focus on his breathing.  
But all Virgil ends up doing, is remaining frozen in place as ‘Logan’ continues to tug on his arm. Maybe he really is nothing but a disappointment.

The Logan in front of him, whatever version of him it may be, starts glitching all of a sudden. Virgil can see flashes of different figures standing in his place; though too fast for his eyes to catch up. The glitching gets worse, Virgil feels like the brightly flashing lights are giving him a headache.  
“Because it’s in your nature.”  
‘Logan’ just starts repeating the same lines of dialogue again. The immobilizing panic rushing through his body, the voice resonating through his ears increasingly louder; it makes him almost want to vomit. He closes his eyes for a second, blocking his view not only from the lights but this whole experience. It’s like reliving the same nightmare over and over again, being aware while not able to escape.  
Hoping for it to end, Virgil cautiously takes a peek to check whether his environment has settled down. Which is the case.  
But he immediately regrets opening his eyes anyway.

The room has returned to its previous state. Jules is still holding a firm grip on him, though the orange glow surrounding him and his awfully satisfied looking grin imply that he appears a lot more confident now. Virgil finds himself holding his breath, a realization striking him that he must have made a terrible mistake.  
“I told you so.”  
As Anxiety takes hold of both his shoulders and whispers in Virgil’s ear, everything’s telling him he’s proven right.  
Deceit’s snake still wrapped around Jules, is soon neutralized by a violent outburst of flames covering its entire body. It is set ablaze within seconds, as piercing screams and the roaring flames resonate throughout the room.  
His ears almost deafened by the agonizing noises in the room, Virgil doesn’t even dare turn around to look at Deceit. In the corner of his vision, he just sees him stumbling backwards before collapsing on the ground.  
He messed it up.  
He messed it up.  
“You always end up messing it up, don’t you? You never learn.” Leaving him to mull over these daunting thoughts, Anxiety gives Virgil a final pat on the back before Jules walks over to him. Forced to look him straight in the eye, Virgil’s heart drops as Jules smiles at him distortedly.  
“Thanks for your help.”  
Glowing fiercely, putting his hands in his pockets, Jules calmly walks out of the room.

And Virgil’s not able to stop him. He messed everything up again. He let Jules get the upper hand. Why did he listen to him?! He should’ve known it was a trap and now he’ll be powerful enough to wipe out everyone in the Imagination. What is he supposed to do?!  
He feels Anxiety’s presence almost suffocating him. As he haphazardly scans around the room, Virgil sees the snake knocked out with its scales still sizzling from the burns, and Deceit laying completely still in the corner of the room.  
“Hey… c’mon, get up…” Virgil shakily urges him, not sure if he can even hear him. But he’s the only who he can ask for help now. Even though Virgil was supposed to be looking out for him.  
Before Virgil is even able to get close to him, he hears the snake rustling around the rubble left behind by the fight. Its movements become increasingly more erratic, as its tail and head start turning and twitching in all directions. Similarly, Virgil sees Deceit struggling to get back up as well. But those animalistic motions he’s making seem very unnatural.  
“Wait..!” Virgil tries to warn him, anticipating the chaos that’s coming. “You need to calm down-”  
He’s quickly cut off by the snake’s tail hitting him in the stomach, throwing him against the wall on the other side. The snake loses all control; rampaging in the entire room and smashing everything that was still somehow standing to bits.  
Crumbling against the wall, his back aching with so much pain it doesn’t allow him to stand up, Virgil simply bears witness to Deceit moving around confused and numb – his eyes turned reptilian and the scales erasing any part of him that was still human.  
The snake hurriedly slithers out of the room, following Jules’s orange scent he’s visibly left behind. Deceit mindlessly follows suit, still clutching onto the nearby walls to keep himself standing from the severe burns all over his body. Glancing over at Virgil with an empty stare, Deceit exits the room as well.

Virgil is left watching them leave him behind. Anxiety was right. You can't change what’s in your nature. He was never meant to be reliable.  
“Just lock yourself away again,” Anxiety mockingly tells him while kneeling down in front of him, “and just accept you’ll be nothing but a bother to them.”

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Hey, kiddo. Let’s calm down, okay?”

Roman wavers, leaving his sword hanging above his head for a few seconds. He didn’t even hear Patton coming, it’s as if he suddenly appeared between them. The second time now, they’ve been getting in his way just when he could have won.  
“What are you doing here?” is all Roman manages to get out of his mouth, slowly lowering his sword next to his side. As much as he feels he probably needs to, he can’t find it in himself to strike his sword down on Patton.  
“I felt like we… I needed to talk to you,” Patton stutters, not breaking eye contact with Roman. He’s motioning something to Remus in the meantime.  
“Just… get out of the way,” Roman responds more meekly than he expected, “…since talking isn’t going to fix anything.”  
“Maybe not!” Patton firmly tells him in return, standing up straighter and clutching his hands. “But at the very least, it might help clear things up…”

Roman knows he shouldn’t listen to him. Patton’s been overlooking all he’s going through for months, what’s any different this time? He’ll only resort to backtracking his statements, making it more confusing, thinking of white lies as Deceit likes to do. What’s the point-  
“I’m sorry for not noticing, all this time.”  
Something about Patton’s words somehow resonates with Roman a little. The dark cloud obscuring his mind clears up a little, and he finds himself trying hard to concentrate on what he’s trying to say.  
“In the beginning, I thought it might help make things easier to just decide on a clear-cut divide, what’s right and wrong. I thought that as long as you knew that, you’d be capable of handling any situation, right?”  
Patton starts fidgeting with the sleeves of his cardigan, occasionally breaking of his eye contact with Roman but looking for it again soon after.  
“But… that doesn’t really work all the time, is what I learned the hard way. It was a mistake to think it could. Because some complicated problems can’t be resolved so easily.”  
Roman feels his throat getting dry, as he swallows to keep his emotions under control. Even though they’re all screaming at him at once, and he can’t keep them inside if he doesn’t say something. Anything at all.  
“I’ve really been following your lead on a lot of things, Patton.” As much as he tries, Roman can’t keep his voice steady. Those bottled up emotions suddenly feel like spilling out, now that he’s faced with his moral compass.  
“Because you claim you know what’s the right thing to do, and I just…”  
Don’t start choking up, now. What’ll they start thinking if he just starts bawling? He really is a coward.

“I just don’t know anymore.”  
Unable to keep the waterworks bottled up, Roman feels some small tears rolling down his cheek. As he bites his lip, he comes to the realization he’s never felt so weak and pathetic. To cry in front of such an audience. But despite all that, he doesn’t feel alone.  
“We’ll try and figure it out together.”  
Patton shoots a careful smile at Roman, who cautiously meets his gaze. For the first time in a long time, he starts feeling reassured. Still confused out of his mind, but the panic starts ebbing away slowly and surely.  
“Thinking about how to deal with… the others… is a good place to start.”  
Patton glances behind him towards Remus as he addresses them, who grunts slightly in response.  
“We might think now or have thought of them as ‘dark’ or ‘evil’…” Patton continues his speech. Peeking through his watery vision, Roman sees Remus looking hopefully towards Patton.  
“…but they all might have some valuable contributions to make as well.”  
Patton's words still sting, and Roman immediately sees an image of Virgil flashing through his eyes. Didn’t he say something similar? Should he even trust that Patton has good intentions? Are they not all still under Deceit’s spell or something?

“It was wrong of me to initially paint them all off as evil, in the first place,” Patton sighs. “I didn’t realize how much I was hurting everyone by doing that, including you. So please Roman, I’m so sorry. I’ll do my best to get better, I promise!”  
Patton grabs holds of Roman’s left hand, pinching it tightly as tears start to form in his eyes as well. Roman sniffs, feeling more tears roll down his face. He must be looking so ugly right now, it’s embarrassing. But he can’t help it.  
Patton turns sideways a little, moving out of Remus’s way just enough for Roman to look his brother in the eyes again. Just like him, Remus kind of stares at him awkwardly and embarrassed. A rare expression to see on him, come to think of it.  
Roman sees Patton grab Remus’s hand as well, as if trying to connect the two brothers. It feels weird, and Roman keeps having flashing of the two of them together in the Imagination, all those years ago.  
“Without saying I’ll forgive all Remus has done, I think you two could really learn a great deal from each other.”  
With a teary-eyed look of expectation, Patton switches his gaze from brother to brother. Though weirdly uncomfortable with being so close to Remus without going at each other’s throats, Roman is surprised by how nostalgic this makes him feel.  
“Same goes for Janus,” Patton continues, letting go of Remus’s hand and turning to face Roman again.  
“I don’t excuse him insulting you like that, but what if we try to get together and talk-”

Roman's heart skips a beat. The air is gettin tense.  
Jules has set foot in the Imagination again.  
In all his limbs, Roman feels a surge of nerves and erratic energy dispersing. His mind quickly starts clouding up again, and he’s losing focus in keeping up with what Patton’s saying.  
He feels the forest burning up orange again, he can smell the scent of the aura enveloping itself around him.  
As he tries to look at Patton, he sees he’s similarly engulfed in an orange hue.  
And he’s no longer having that understanding look on his face.  
Patton's grimacing, his eyes darkening up, snarky and accusatory tone as he speaks.  
“If you can’t even do that, you’re a pretty lousy hero, aren’t you?”

“SEE? HE’S BEEN LYING. FINISH HIM OFF. AND SHOW HIM WHAT YOU’RE WORTH.”

Jules might as well be either shouting or whispering to Roman, he can’t tell anymore at this point. As he methodically raises his sword, his vision becomes dark and the familiar raging energy rids any nostalgic or reassuring thought he had from his mind. Until he can sense hardly anything anymore.

With his last conscious ounce of strength, he stabs forward with his sword.  
While some essence splashes on Roman’s face, his mind goes blank.


	15. How To Make Amends

It all happened in an instant.  
For a second, Patton was relieved to see he was getting through to Roman. Or so it seemed. He was trying to be as cautious as possible with choosing his words, and just showing he cared. Properly apologize, and think of ways to resolve the situation.  
But as soon as Jules entered the Imagination, Roman was completely overshadowed by this terrifying aura of rage he’d been carrying around. And Patton found himself frozen by fear, as Roman drew his sword to aim it towards him.

That’s why Patton's so confused as he opens his eyes, and feels blades of grass between his fingers. Pushing himself off the surface to get up, his memory starts coming back to him. A painful ache on his left arm reminds him he’s been shoved aside, the grass braking his fall. Slowly but surely, he’s getting aware of struggling breaths and noises from behind him.  
Wait, so then…  
Patton quickly turns around to look back towards the forest’s clearing.

It’s Remus.  
After shoving Patton out of the way, he’d received Roman’s sword piercing through his right shoulder. It’s bleeding heavily, with Roman having some green essence splattered over his face as well.  
His entire body shaking violently, Patton can’t do anything more than simply watch as the two brothers aggressively stare each other in the eyes. How did he let it come to this? Why did Remus protect him? Patton should’ve been the one to fix this! And instead, he just keeps making excuses and thinking of quick solutions. If he had only let Roman speak his mind and worries, and simply lend a listening ear…  
Logan would’ve surely known what to do.  
Patton feels like he could punch himself, for the selfish way he keeps acting. Fiercely biting his lip, he squints his eyes at the frightening sight in front of him while brainstorming on what to say next.

He sees Remus clutching both of his hands around Roman’s sword, the blade cutting into his hands. Roman’s gaze is unfaltering, filled with pure anger and bloodlust.  
“You still chose him… huh?” Remus struggles to speak, trying to remove the blade from his shoulder. Roman continues to push back forcefully.  
“Can’t you see… what he’s making you do? I thought you’d see through those… cliché villainous tricks by now…”  
“You just continue to look down on me, don’t you…” Roman says in response, though it’s more like an animalistic growl than anything his voice used to resemble. With a clean swing, he slashes his sword upward, creating a gaping wound in Remus’s shoulder. As Remus grabs onto his bleeding shoulder, Roman doesn’t even hesitate to stab his sword again aimed at Remus’s stomach. Just in time, he manages to grab the blade with his other hand, to redirect it towards his side. The blade still slices clean through, more green essence spilling onto the grass.  
“Please stop…” is all that leaves Patton’s mouth, his throat now dried up to a crisp. Breaking away from his frozen state, he’s overcome by his instinct screaming that he has to do something, and gets up. He happens to catch Remus’s gaze for a second however, which instantly urges him to not come any closer. Instead, Remus directs Patton’s gaze to further behind him, which Patton hesitantly follows.  
Jules is standing there from a safe distance, lurking between the trees with a confident grin on his face and oozing his usual oppressive aura. Patton might have a chance to get closer to him, as long as he stays undetected.

“You know what happens, when you get rid of me… don’t you…?!”  
Through his coughing and grunting, Remus starts speaking in a more aggressive, even desperate, tone of voice. While keeping a close eye on Jules’s movements, Patton can’t stop picking up everything the brothers are saying. Even though Remus seemed to urge him not to intervene, Patton is still overwhelmed by an extreme sense of concern that leaves him unable to stray to far from the brothers’ side.  
“I don’t care about what happens.”  
Roman’s voice slowly starts to break as well, as he starts forcing his sword deeper into Remus’s side. Every little move Patton attempts to sneak closer to Jules, he can’t help himself from looking back. He has to firmly keep his lips pressed shut as to not shout out to them again.  
Just as Patton looks back, now a few steps away from them, he sees Remus grinning. For some reason it felt like he was responding to Patton again, to keep closing in on Jules while Jules's megalomania is keeping his eyes fixed on the two brothers.

“So you really hate me that much?!”  
Patton hears Remus yelling, his usual frolicky tone of voice faltering more and more into one of pure desperation. He doesn’t know if this is part of Remus’s plan to keep Roman occupied, but if so he’s putting himself in a lot of danger because of it. As much as it pains him, to have Remus hurting in his place just to clean up the mess he made, he knows it’s their best bet if Patton closes in on Jules in the meantime. With very careful and silent steps, he inches closer to Jules lurking from behind the trees.  
“What this place used to be… you couldn’t care less about it now, huh?!” Remus shouts out again.  
Roman just scoffs in response.  
“Didn’t take YOU for the sentimental type.”  
As Patton keeps on listening in while closing in on Jules, he hardly can believe that low scorning voice in Roman’s. All passion and joy seems to have been stripped away, replaced by so much hatred. It frightens him to hear Roman talk like this. He just hopes that they’ll be able to release him from those nasty feelings soon. Hiding behind another tree, Patton’s only about a few meters away from Jules now. He almost hears his excited breathing from his position, still mesmerized by the exhibition of power of the two brothers.

The next step he takes though, makes Patton’s heart skip a beat. A twig gets snapped beneath his foot, and Patton sees Roman’s head perking up and turning around.  
Remus notices too, and in response Patton sees he quickly grabs Roman’s sword with both hands. His aura starts changing; a more violent shade of green enveloping him and his face becoming visibly darker, even as Patton can see from his position.  
It succeeds in redirecting Roman’s direction towards Remus again.  
“Well then, what are you waiting for?” Remus grins in return, his voice echoing more menacingly throughout the Imagination. Patton takes deep breaths and closes his eyes, calming himself down from the chaos while remaining as quiet as possible. From the corner of his eye, he sees Jules just a few steps away from him.  
“If you really want to get rid of me that badly…” Remus's voice echoes throughout the forest.  
The surrounding greenery suddenly starts rotting and drying out, slowly losing its colour and creating cracks in the ground. Patton can hear Jules’s ragged breathing and whispering.  
“Do it…”

“JUST DO IT!!”  
Remus’s cry resonates throughout the entire forest, sending shock waves and a terrifying surge of anxiety through Patton’s being. He feels like this is no longer just a distraction anymore.  
Jules starts grinning more viciously, as Patton approaches Jules from his left side holding a large branch behind his back.  
As the shock wave slowly dies out, Patton’s heart drops as Jules glances sideways and locks his gaze with Patton’s for a second. Wide-eyed and oozing an intimidating aura of rage, Patton almost feels immobilized again.  
Before either of them even have time to react, a gigantic yellow snake charges at them from between the surrounding trees. Just able to dodge its vicious bite attack, both Patton and Jules fall back as the snake forcefully bites into the tree Patton was hiding behind. It snaps it in half with no effort, the two trunks of tree flying right across Patton’s face.

From the corner of his vision, Patton sees Roman deliver a final swing with his sword to Remus. With Roman kicking him in the stomach, Remus crashes into the nearby trees disappearing from Patton’s sight. Roman turns to look towards Patton instead.  
As all eyes turn towards him, Patton quivers at the realization he’s completely cornered. As the snake erratically slithers around ready to attack him again, a yellow figure walking towards them from the back of the forest initially gives Patton a sprinkle of hope.  
But his heart sinks as he sees the look on Janus’s face; his eyes snake-like and face covered in scales, walking around mindlessly with his clothes tattered and signs of burn marks. The same intimidating look Jules is wearing.

Patton knows he’s got nowhere left to run, and he has to act NOW.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Virgil’s just left alone. Mulling over and blaming himself for his actions, no doubts. 

Now that Jules is not around, Logan found he left a considerable crack open in his white void, through which he could easily escape if he wanted to. And though this is what he’s been striving for, some sense of freedom, he still lingers in his void and continues to pace around.  
Now that Jules has his influence back, he might be able to take back control over the others and get them to finally listen. But judging from Jules’s outbursts, manipulating Virgil, harming Janus to the extent that his hyper-instinctual state of mind lost all control… Logan can’t stop himself from thinking that this is the part where he has to resign from this plan they made. Jules is just causing more chaos and destruction than setting his eyes on the ultimate goal, reaching an agreement. He simply wants power and attention.  
On top of that, even though he doesn’t completely understand what’s driving this feeling, Logan can’t endure the sight of Virgil cowering with fear in the corner. So before his mind has realized it, his legs move for him and he steps out of the white void, setting foot in his now wrecked husk of a room. Carefully as to not scare him, Logan sits down next to him and places his hand on Virgil’s shoulder.

“Calm down.”

Virgil lifts his head up from burying it in his arms, sitting with his knees pulled up to his chest. As Virgil turns his face towards him, Logan sees his eyes are considerably red and his eyeshadow is smudging his cheeks.  
He just stares at him for a moment, his mouth slightly agape while hesitating on what to say.  
“How did you…”  
“Seems Jules forgot to seal the exit,” Logan responds, resting both his arms on his knees as well and trying to give Virgil a reassuring smile. However in response, he receives a punch on his right arm.  
“Hey now. Was that necessary?”  
As he looks back at Virgil, he sees him both frowning disapprovingly and close to tears. It’s a confusing expression, but it makes Logan feel slightly guilty regardless.  
“I told you not to disappear on us again.”  
Virgil’s voice trembled as he spoke, though Logan was unsure whether it was from anger or sadness. Afterwards, Virgil clutches onto Logan’s right sleeve and leans his head on his shoulder. Logan had slowly learned to get used to this sort of behavior from him, whenever he had one of these attacks. Just now, Logan realizes that the usual protective instinct instilled in him in such moments, is somehow stronger than usual. As it is still accompanied by this uncanny sense of guilt.

“I’m sorry,” Logan responds firmly, “I just felt like my contributions weren’t much needed or appreciated. So…”  
“Don’t you be starting too.”  
It almost sounds like a threat, the way Virgil says it. But Logan also detected a hint of desperation in his voice.  
“Don’t you dare begin saying we don’t need you. How many times have you come to help us out of so many dilemma’s we’ve fussed about?”  
Clutching more firmly onto his sleeve, Virgil actively avoids meeting Logan’s gaze.  
“We… I can’t do anything right if you’re not here. If anyone of you isn’t here.”  
Virgil lets go of Logan and wraps his arms around his legs again. Logan hears he’s starting to hyperventilate, so he has to speak up soon if he wants Virgil to get out of this mindset.  
“I messed up and was stupid enough to fall for Jules’s trap and now he’s out there wrecking everything and everyone, and it’s all my fault-!”

“Virgil.”  
As strictly as he can, Logan turns sideways and grabs Virgil by both his shoulders. He needs to snap him out of this way of thinking. He’s done it before; he should be able to get through to him.  
“It is very human to make mistakes. You can’t possibly disregard all variables and put all the blame on yourself.”  
“Easy for you to say, claiming you never-”  
“I made a mistake, too.”  
It is a weird sensation for Logan to feel his heart beating in his chest so loudly. He even has to look away from Virgil for a second, to consider carefully how he could put his thoughts into words properly. Taking a deep breath, he meets Virgil’s gaze again and speaks up.  
“It was wrong of me to try and make a deal with Jules. All I wanted was to get it through to you, that the way you were all handling the situation wouldn’t be fruitful in the slightest. But instead, the deal just caused more chaos.”  
Somehow it feels like a figurative weight has been lifted from his shoulders, as they say. A sense of relief overcomes Logan, having finally voiced his reasoning behind getting involved with Jules in the first place. The relief even causes him to start speaking again, without thinking it through this time.  
“I just felt neglected, and-”

Hold on. ‘Felt’? Should he be using phrasing like that?  
He worriedly glances over at Virgil again, who leaves out a short sigh and tilts his head at him, smiling softly.  
“Didn’t you used to say to me, ‘whatever you’re feeling is okay’? Well, right back at you.”  
Stumbling over his words a little, Virgil’s keeps his eyes locked with Logan’s while he talks. The more he does, the more Virgil seems to calm himself down. Even without Logan saying anything in return. Logan senses some more nerves rushing through his being, as if he’s getting anxious.  
“What do you mean?” Logan asks back, even though he has a feeling he already knows what this is about.  
“If you’re feeling something, anything, it’s fine. Is what I mean,” Virgil responds, fumbling with the strings of his hoodie.  
“It may not be perfectly ‘rational’ or anything but… Honestly, it only makes me respect you more.”  
Virgil starts blushing, looking down and snorting a few times to fight back his last remaining tears and nerves. For the first time in a while, Logan is left speechless. Now he feels his throat getting dry and his eyes watery. Is it really alright to be feeling this? He is supposed to be the rational one holding the rest together, after all. However, at the very least, if it helps putting Virgil at ease…

Logan chuckles a little, trying to hide these still embarrassing signs of emotions.  
“Never expected to still be learning such a great deal from you. But very well.”  
He takes a deep breath, and hears Virgil doing the same.  
“Be proud of the progress you’ve made so far, Virgil,” Logan reassures him, trying cautiously to stop thinking too much and instead let whatever he’s feeling speak for him.  
“I believe you have the best chance out of us all to get Roman back to normal. You can do this.”  
“Then you need to come, too. Don’t back away from it.”  
Virgil responds determined, instilling a sense of reassurance within Logan as well. He is unsure what the best strategy is to get a handle on Jules now, but he’ll just have to trust in his knowledge that he’ll figure something out. 

Virgil gets up resolutely, seemingly having escaped his negative headspace for now. Logan follows suit, purposefully allowing Virgil to lead his way. They swiftly head out of the door, heading towards the Imagination. As Logan sets a single foot out of his room, he feels like he can finally breathe again. How suffocating must his white void have been?  
He takes one look back at his room, still in shambles. It’s going to need a thorough clean up, when he gets back. At the very least, he’s glad to say he has a space for himself again. Virgil tugs on his wrist impatiently, and though still uncertain, Logan lets him guide him along.


	16. Break the Chains

It’s the first time Patton has ever stared a snake straight in the eyes. Oddly mesmerizing, as he hears it hissing more and more loudly and opening its mouth wide. Showing off rows of sharp teeth ready to bite into him.  
Like a predator locking in on its prey, it wastes little time to snap forward reaching for Patton’s face. He’s just barely able to dodge backwards, quickly grabbing a stronger hold of the tree branch he was carrying earlier. The snake jots its head back to bite again, after which Patton pulls out the branch to shield himself. Luckily the snake bites into it, though the wood breaks apart in its mouth immediately after.  
While the snake recovers from the now countless pieces of wood stuck in its mouth, Patton hurriedly scans his surroundings for any other kind of weapon. Suddenly, he feels someone grabbing onto his shoulders from behind.

“I’m happy to lend you some strength, Patton. You know what that means, right?”  
Jules whispers into his ear, but judging from his ragged breathing and unsteady tone he’s not nearly as composed as usual. Meaning he could be vulnerable. And besides, Patton won’t let his emotions get the better of him again. There’s too much disarray in the Imagination as is, no need to add a giant frog to the mix.  
Sealing his mouth shut as to not make any slip-ups, Patton elbows Jules from behind as hard as he can. He manages to hit his stomach, after which Jules gets the air knocked out of him for a moment. Using these few seconds to get away while Jules catches his breath, Patton dodges to the left again to avoid the snake snapping its mouth at him for a second time. Instead, Jules finds himself being bitten in his shoulder, even to the point of some of his orange essence dropping on the grass. The blades of grass burn to a crisp instantly.  
Getting himself up from the ground, Patton looks around to see Janus leaning against a tree a couple of meters away from them. He twitchily moves around his left hand and fingers, as if controlling the snake’s movements. At the same time Patton catches sight of this, Jules screams out in anger and grabs the snake by its neck. Aggressively strangling it, flames appearing from his hand burn away the scales he’s touching. As if telepathically connected, the same marks burn into Janus’s neck as well. While Janus is violently coughing up essence as a result, Jules smashes the snake to the ground which makes the animal mindlessly and erratically slither back and forth.

Jules locks his gaze with Patton again; the furious look in his eyes telling him he should get as far away from Jules as possible. He’s not able to run far however; as soon as Patton tries to pass through the barren trees covering the forest, three of them on his right get cut clean in half by a very familiar sword. The trunks come tumbling down, opening up Patton’s view on the forest’s clearing again. The snake has changed course now, spastically making its way towards Remus who’s still laying still among broken down trees in the back.  
Before Patton even has a chance to call out to him, Roman draws his sword on Patton aiming right for his neck. Dodging backwards the tip of the sword slices right along Patton’s chest, ripping his cardigan off his shoulders. He stumbles over one of the cut down tree roots, Roman now standing over him with the sword dangling in front of Patton’s nose.  
“Please Roman, you don’t want to do this!” Patton yells out to him, hoping at some point his words might get through.  
“You don’t know what I want!”  
As Roman yells back, he raises his sword above his head. Seeing his chance, Patton grabs his torn down cardigan and throws it in Roman’s face, hoping it can catch him off guard. Using every second of time he buys himself to get back up and run back towards the forest’s clearing, Patton sees the snake’s gotten hold of Remus with his tail. Dangling him upside down by his leg. He seems faintly conscious, but without his weapon unable to put up much of a fight against the snake. 

Do something! Anything!  
Finding a piece of rock near the cracks appearing more and more across the field, Patton hastily grabs hold of it and throws it in the snake’s direction. He feels like he isn’t even thinking anymore. He just knows he has to fight back, in whatever way he can.  
Hearing footsteps on the grass quickly closing in on him make Patton jump and turn around, seeing Roman run towards him again. With no way to dodge his sword attack this time, Patton holds out both his hands in front of him, catching the blade in his palms.  
It hurts a lot more than he thought, as he feels the muscles in his hand tensing up in response to the deep slice made by the sword. To his left, Janus starts approaching him as well. Still no sign of consciousness, Janus keeps wriggling his left hand around. To his right, he watches the snake smack Remus onto the grass to make its way towards him too.  
Surrounded once again. Is there really no way for him to get out of this?! Sweating profusely and feeling the heart-racing panic set in, Patton slowly starts losing the energy to keep his hands pushing back against Roman’s sword. To keep himself standing, even.  
He won’t make it.  
He can’t fix this by himself…

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Patton, watch out!”  
Running across the faded and dried out grass as fast as his legs can carry him, Virgil leaps forward in front of Logan to reach Patton first. Deceit’s snake is almost about to close its mouth around Patton’s torso, when Virgil arrives just in time to deliver a surprisingly effective kick against the reptile’s jaw.  
The snake confusedly shaking its head around, gives Logan the time needed to catch up to him and push Patton away from underneath Roman’s sword.

“Idiot! What are you doing? You’re with us!” Roman screams at Logan, though Virgil has his back turned to them to keep his eyes on the snake instead. He hears Patton call out to him too; with the best front he can manage, he smiles back at him confidently.  
“Thanks for keeping them busy,” he tells Patton, as he sees the snake redirect its attention towards himself. Perfect. As they discussed before entering the Imagination, Virgil would focus on getting Deceit to calm down while Logan tries to get Roman away from Jules’s sphere of influence. Speaking of, he hasn’t seen him yet. Which is worrying.  
But he doesn’t have much time to think about it anyway. The snake quickly charges for another attack, which Virgil just barely manages to dodge by jumping on top of its head and lands behind its body. In the time that rests him for the snake to recharge, he quickly locates where Deceit is standing and yells out to Patton.

“Patton, you stay with Roman! And keep an eye out for Jules!”  
Not waiting for a response, he attempts to make a sprint towards Deceit standing in the middle of the clearing. He’s still not conscious, but he has to take his chances.  
He takes a firm grip of Deceit’s left wrist, in an attempt to stop him from controlling the snake. As soon as he does though, he catches Jules emerging from behind the far away trees looking pissed as heck. Even whispering from that distance, his voice echoes through the Imagination clear as day:

“You’re like a filthy cockroach, just refusing to die.”

Virgil’s hand then suddenly starts burning as he grips it tightly along Deceit’s wrist, who hisses at him aggressively and kicks him straight in the stomach to make him let go.  
“Cut it out already!” Virgil tries to yell back at him, but all he gets in response are more vicious animalistic expressions and Deceit violently tugging his hand off of him. After receiving another kick, Virgil feels an incredible surge of pain through his arm as the snake digs its countless teeth into it firmly.  
He can’t help but scream from the pain. As much as he wriggles, the snake refuses to let go. He hears Roman’s sword clashing against the shield Logan seems to have conjured up, and can’t look away from those soulless snake-like eyes Deceit wears as he watches him squirming.  
Fight the pain, he’s dealt with worse. In fact, he knows how to deal with Deceit when he’s like this. Jules’s presence is just making him more powerful! If only…

As if on cue, a slight flicker of yellow appears in Deceit’s eyes and Virgil catches Patton grabbing Jules’s arms from behind. Hearing Jules letting out struggling yells, gives Virgil the time frame he needs to yank the snake from his arm in its shortly weakened state. As fast as he can, he grabs Deceit’s wrist once more, now using his other hand to cover the left side of Deceit’s face. Deceit doesn’t let that happen without fighting back, though. As Virgil expected, Deceit hisses back at him and then proceeds to bite in Virgil’s hand almost as viciously as the snake did in his arm. His entire body is yelling at Virgil to pull back his hand, but he knows he’s come too close to back down now.  
Don’t think, trust his gut. He knows what to do.

Virgil feels his right arm shaking from the pierced wounds the snake bite left behind. As he is still grabbing Deceit’s wrist, Virgil feels him twitch and twirl his left hand around to send the snake charging past them towards Patton – who’s still trying to hold back Jules.  
Sliding his hand down to firmly hold onto Deceit’s hand to stop him from moving it, he feels how rough and tattered the scales on his skin have become. With his essence dripping along some cuts in his hand, it makes it harder for Virgil to not let his hand slip from his grip. As Virgil tries to catch his attention, Deceit is still manically looking down at Virgil’s hand he’s biting on.

“It’s okay, we’ll live through this. Just calm down.”  
Putting on the calmest voice he can, Virgil starts telling Deceit the first things that jumps to his mind. Now that he’s putting all his concentration into this, for everyone’s sake, he doesn’t even have room in his mind for feeling embarrassed.  
“Let’s breathe. You know how to do that, don’t you? You’re the one who taught me.”  
Keep talking, don’t focus on the pain. Filter out everything that’s happening elsewhere.  
And slowly but surely, Deceit releases Virgil’s hand from his mouth and his reptile-like eyes finally lock with Virgil’s. Wasting no time, Virgil moves his left hand to cover up Deceit’s left eye immediately. Making sure not to break eye contact with him.  
Wait for his eye to return to normal. Persevere through the pain.  
“We…got this. We’ve done this a billion times,” Virgil keeps on telling him, as much as telling himself.

“Just breathe. 4, 7, 8.”

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Patton, you stay with Roman! And keep an eye out for Jules!”  
Virgil runs off towards Janus, which Logan sees as his cue to conjure his translucent shield to hold off against Roman. Here his being in the Imagination actually works in Logan’s favor. Though he can’t usually maneuver the unpredictability of the place and has trouble directly participating with conflicts of this nature, he has always been able to defend himself against Roman’s creations rather confidently.  
Roman doesn’t go easy on him, continuously slamming his sword against the shield without giving Logan any time to catch his breath.  
“Logan! Let me help you!” he hears Patton pleading from behind him.  
“And almost get yourself stabbed again?” Logan snaps back at him, blurting it out more judgingly then he meant to. While firmly pushing back against Roman’s sword, he shoots a glance at Patton who seems to have a considerable cut over his chest. Having lost his cardigan and essence dripping from the tear in his shirt. Though the wound isn’t too deep luckily, as Patton can still get up and move around without too much trouble.  
Patton looks down for a second and closes his eyes, after which he looks back at Logan with a determined expression.  
“I know how I can help,” he tells Logan, and runs off towards the edge of the forest’s clearing.  
“Patton!”  
Logan tries to call out after him, but to no avail. Too altruistic for his own good.  
Roman seems to redirect his attention towards Patton as well; in an attempt to block Roman from running off too, Logan jumps in front of him from his right side.

“Roman, this way you’re acting will not help you,” Logan begins addressing Roman, him still wearing the familiar raging glare in his eyes.  
“Just look at the wreckage it’s already brought about.”  
“How would you know?! You’ve never understood the slightest thing about me!” Roman shouts back at him, swinging his sword down with such force that the ground starts cracking beneath Logan’s feet. He almost fears Roman might actually break through his barrier.  
“I understand how you feel, at least. You might think Jules can make you feel valued, but…”  
“Don’t you start talking about feelings!”  
As Roman keeps on yelling, Logan spots Remus wobbly standing up from near the barren trees at the edge of the clearing. He looks severely injured, his right shoulder bleeding heavily as if it was pierced and barely keeping himself standing straight. As he slowly reaches for his Morningstar on the ground, he makes eye contact with Logan. While Logan tries his hardest to keep a blank face, Remus simply grins back at him as he slowly approaches his brother from behind.  
“Since all you are is just a heartless piece of-”  
Roman is cut off by Jules suddenly letting out a yell from the far back. As Logan glances to his right, he sees Patton has managed to grab a hold of him while Jules struggles to free himself. For a split second, the orange glare in Roman’s eyes start flickering and the force in his attack weakens. Enough for him to push Roman backwards a couple of steps, getting him in closer range of Remus who’s inching ever closer. 

“You don’t need to listen to him, Roman.”  
As Logan speaks, he witnesses how chains suddenly start to materialize around Roman’s ankles. They’re glowing a bright orange hue, and from the corner of his vision he sees a similar chain wrapping itself around Patton in the back. They’ll lose their chance, if he doesn’t act now. Without thinking too much, Logan continues speaking to Roman as considerate but convincing as he can.  
“Jules doesn’t want to help you, he’s manipulating you.”  
Remus steps in closer towards Roman from behind, as well as Logan in front. He makes his shield evaporate, and notices Remus similarly dropping his Morningstar on the ground too. Roman is wavering, the sword resting loosely in his hands with the tip leaning on the ground.  
“You can free yourself from him, I have too. And you won’t be alone.”  
The chains make shackling noises around them, materializing more densely and the orange hue regaining its ominous glow. Not much time left.  
“You still have your agency,” Logan continues. “I’ve seen it. Just… come back.”  
How odd it feels to be speaking without using his head, Logan comes to realize. The way he’s talking does something to him he doesn’t quite understand. But that’s not the issue now. Roman needs to come back, for this chaos to end.  
However, the familiar chains start wrapping around Roman’s ankles more tightly, Roman breaks away from Logan’s gaze, he hears sizzling fire approaching faster and faster.  
Logan feels he’s starting to panic; he doesn’t know what else he can do.

Apparently someone else does.  
Logan sees Remus drawing more essence from his wound, covering the palm of his hand with it. Grabbing Roman by the shoulder from behind with his other hand, he grabs onto Roman’s arm exactly where he happens to have an open scratch wound of his own.  
As Remus’s essence mixes with Roman’s, Logan is blinded by a bright light enveloping the entire Imagination space in an instant.


	17. I'm Sorry

Before the bright flash of light restores anything of Roman’s sense of touch or vision, a distant memory suddenly flashes in his mind.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“You have to play the bad guy!” 

“Huh? Why’s that?!”

“Well, you’re scary, stinky, loud… It’s a perfect match. It definitely can’t be me, ‘cause I’m the Prince!”

“What makes you think the Prince can’t be the bad guy?”

“Because! Princes are good, they fight the villains, save the kingdom from evil.”

“Who says I can’t save the kingdom from evil?”

“That’s just silly Remus. Like I said, you ARE the evil!”

“Well, that’s stupid! The way I see it, I’m the one trying to save the kingdom from YOUR evil little plans. They all know you as Roman the Raging Rampage, after all.”

“They do not! What are you even saying?”

“Oh, silly little brother. It’s what Dee said, “a matter of perspective”. I just want to take back the kingdom that used to be under my rule.”

“And I want to protect my new kingdom from the slimy hands of an unknown intruder like you.”

“You see? We just want different things, is all. But fine, if you really want me to then I’ll be the biggest baddy to have ever lived!”

“Oh yeah? Well Prince Roman won’t be fooled easily by the likes of you, heathen!”

“Watch my moves closely, phony little Princey! You might learn something.”

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And as soon as it came, the scene fades out from Roman’s mind like a video tape switching to static. He slowly regains the sense in his fingers and hands, where he feels his sword loosely resting in. Though more importantly, he senses a surge of power rushing through him like he’s never felt before. Or at least, as far as he can remember. It’s different than how it feels with Jules; it isn’t overpowering him, his sense of self isn’t fading away. In fact, this might be the most conscious or aware he’s been in a while.  
But that amount of conscious power scares Roman as well. What makes him think he’s worthy to wield this much power? As Logan said, he’s made such a mess of things already.  
Roman notices he can see his surroundings again. Logan in front of him, blocking his vision with his arm. Remus laying knocked out behind him. Far to the left, Virgil and Deceit. A giant yellow snake is wriggling around on the ground in a confused and erratic manner, as if it’s glued to Deceit’s presence. And in the back, Patton lies shackled in chains with Jules looming over him with an intense and intimidating stare directed at Roman.

Just looking at him makes Roman freeze up. He shouldn’t go against him. But on the other hand, he feels like he WANTS to. For the first time in a long time, he wants something again. And even though it’s terrifying, maybe this was the light down the path he’s been looking for. Maybe Logan is right – there could be a way to free himself. He could earn the others’ trust again, even though he probably doesn’t deserve it.

He firmly grips the sword’s handle in his hand. As he moves his legs around, he hears chains shackling around his ankles. They lead all the way up to Jules.  
As if time slows down, Roman takes step after step towards him. Increasing his pace to go faster and faster, until he’s running. The chains are rustling between his feet, but he won’t let them slow him down. He catches a glimpse of different rows chains slowly becoming visible, all of them accumulating in Jules’s hands. He doesn’t even know what it is exactly that’s driving him forward; he just knows he doesn’t want this moment of clarity to fade.  
Breathe in.  
Breathe out.  
Focus.  
Imbued with an oddly nostalgic sense of justice, Roman can finally find the fleeting second of confidence he needs to swing his sword sideways and slice clean through all of Jules’s chains at once.  
All the chains evaporate into thin air.  
And with that, he’s done it.

Before Jules even has the chance to react or lock eyes with him, Roman turns his back on him in an attempt to not let his sense of accomplishment waver. Unfortunately, he can’t help but scan around for any kind of response or validation. And what he sees immediately makes the brightly glowing sword in his hands feel so much heavier.  
Remus is still laying knocked out, green essence spilling from the wound where Roman stabbed him, dying the grass blades an even darker shade of green. Logan, still panting from Roman swinging his sword down on him time and time again. Virgil, bleeding essence from his arms similar to when he first jumped in front of Roman in the Imagination before. Patton, bearing the same look of shock he had when Roman was ready to slice through him.  
They’re all staring at him; though Roman can’t tell all their expressions from here, something tells him they must be terrified at his exhibition of power. Isn’t that all he’s ever been doing, during the time he’s been like this?  
The distant memory flashes in front of Roman’s eyes again – he really does look like the bad guy here, doesn’t he? All overpowered, attacking them mercilessly, instilling them with fear. If he didn’t know any better, he’d be thinking of himself as the villain too. Now that he’s even turned against the one Side who protected him throughout all of this.

And this power – it isn’t even really his, is it? Should’ve felt it from the start, why wielding this much power feels wrong. The damage has been done, it would be unjust of Roman to fuse them back together for his sake. For the sake of feeling worthy again.  
Roman looks around lost at the Imagination. The forest’s clearing is still covered in cracks spanning the entire field, leaking orange hue profusely. It’s his destruction that’s caused all of this. Most damage has been done already, and it left an impression of him on everyone’s mind he won’t be able to erase easily.  
But for what it’s worth, he can’t stand to see those looks on their faces anymore. Isn’t there anything he could do to at least give them some peace of mind?  
Taking a deep breath, Roman walks up to the start of one of the cracks in the ground. Pointing the tip of his sword down exactly where the crack begins, he forces his eyes shut. Is this the right thing to do? Not sure. But it feels like it might be.

“STOP IT!!!”

As Jules yells out to him, Roman already has his sword plunged into the crack – dispersing all its energy through the Imagination ground. Lighting up a dazzling red and green, all the cracks illuminate until they slowly close up and the orange hue dissipates completely. At the same time, Roman feels that confident and empowering drive draining out of him along the slowly closing edges.  
Wobbling back a few steps from the impact, the Imagination space still shaking to its core, he drops the tip of his sword on the ground again.  
Now that he’s broken the chains, blown out the only assured guiding light he felt he had left, was it really worth it?

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Breathing in. Holding it. And breathing out.

Having lost count of how many times he’s been over it, at some point Janus feels he can finally open his eyes and regains a sense of his surroundings. His entire body is aching of tensed up muscles and it’s glowing hot all over. Whoever’s standing in front of him is slowly coming into focus… Virgil. But he isn’t looking at him, rather somewhere to the left of him.  
As his body is gradually rid of its persevering numbness, it feels so incredibly heavy and his legs so weak that Janus collapses to the ground instantly. Only then does he notice Virgil’s been keeping his left eye covered and holding onto his left hand tightly, which he lets slip from Virgil’s grip as he drops down. He feels a large head shoving itself against his back at the same time. The little guy must be exhausted. Slithering over his left hand and up his arm, the snake grows smaller and smaller until it eventually disappears. Finally, Janus feels his mind clearing up again.

“H-Hey, you’re back!”  
Virgil exclaims as he kneels down along with Janus, shifting his gaze towards him while looking somewhat concerned still. Despite the burning pains over his body and his throat feeling incredibly soar, Janus senses more chills running down his spine when he sees the state Virgil’s in. He’s breathing exhaustedly, the sleeve on his right arm torn to shreds and died with purple essence, not to mention the noticeable bite marks covering his left hand.  
Janus’s heart starts pounding loudly, as worry starts to set in before he becomes fully aware of it.  
“What happened..? I-”  
“It’s no big deal,” Virgil responds curtly, looking away from him embarrassed. “At least you-”  
“STOP IT!!!”  
Virgil’s cut short by Jules screaming, and the ground rumbling beneath them. Virgil quickly rises to his feet, anxiously facing away from Janus once more. Still unable to keep a clear head as to what is going on, Janus follows Virgil’s lead and turns his position slightly to look to his left.

Roman has forced his sword down one of the huge cracks that are covering the forest’s entire clearing, exerting some kind of red and green energy from the sword’s impact. The energy’s worked its way through all the cracks, filling them up again and ridding the atmosphere of any orange hue that was still waying the Imagination down.  
Such an incredible display of power. Mesmerized by it, Janus can’t look away. So this might be an excerpt what the King was once or would be capable of… The oppressive aura simultaneously dissipates from the area, and Janus feels like he can properly breathe again. This should be it. This should’ve been what’s needed to put an end to this.  
But still, however frustrating it is, Roman’s face looks concernedly doubtful as he wobbles back from the impact his sword made. Still hurting from his injuries, Janus can’t find the strength to get back to his feet, as pathetic as that sounds. 

“Roman? What do you think you're doing?”  
From behind Roman, Jules tries to recover from his noticeably unstable demeanor and call out to him. Though Janus can tell immediately, even from his position sitting a couple of meters away from them, that Jules can’t hide his desperation.  
Good.

“Don’t be silly, come back here. You know I only want what’s best for you right?”  
Jules continues walking towards him, putting up a doating and soft voice that’s still spiced up by underlying sneer and contempt. Janus would recognize those in an instant, as he’s been no stranger to distorting his voice in a similar fashion. But as his throat won’t allow him to get a single word in still, he’s got nothing left to do than simply watch the scene unfold.  
Virgil passes Janus to walk closer towards Roman as well. He doesn’t even waver in his step anymore, Janus comes to wonder as he watches him.  
“Roman, please come back. You deserve so much better than the treatment he’s been giving you.”  
“DON’T listen to him! …I mean, what have they done for you in the long run? Just think of how long they’ve been ignoring you!”

Roman is constantly switching his head back and forth between the two Sides, getting more panicked and breathing more heavily as he goes on. Janus lets out an exhausted sigh, just hoping for his strength to return to him soon. Glancing around, he catches Logan walking towards the group as well.  
Janus feels his heart skip a beat, as he sees Logan is supporting a severely injured Remus. It’s what Janus feared; Remus went full on reckless on his brother. But assuming Roman was able to wield the power of Creativity like he did… It wouldn’t be feasible without Remus’s input. Just how much was he willing to bet on that to work, though? Well, he wouldn’t be the Duke if he didn’t take massive risks like that after all.  
“Roman, we’ll help you work through your problems together. It’s gonna be okay.”  
“LIES! They’re lying, you know this! Come back, please. You won’t betray me would you?”  
As the yelling continues, Janus sees Remus reach for his Morningstar laying further away on the ground. As soon as he gets a hold of it, he pushes Logan away from him and leans on his weapon for support instead. Flashing his familiar cheeky grin, through the apparent pain and injuries he’s received already.  
That’s right, what’s Janus moping around for? He has a name now, he’s no longer lurking from the sidelines.

“Jules won’t be good for you, Roman!” Patton butts in, standing dangerously close to Jules as Janus now comes to notice. Jules immediately puts his finger in front of his mouth, hissing at Patton violently.  
“YOU STAY QUIET.”  
Though he must have lost a considerable amount if not all of his influence compared to before, his voice alone seems to startle Patton enough that it silences him for the time being.  
But this yelling has gone on too long anyway. It’s about time they all stayed quiet for a minute.  
Janus turns his hand around and closes it, zipping their mouths as he struggles to get back up from the ground. His throat still burning up and soar, he forces himself to ready himself for speaking as he walks up to the confused prince himself.

“Roman...”  
Roman turns to look at him. The first time he’s really, consciously looked Janus in the eye since… then. That solemn, confused look he’s wearing speaks a thousand words. But now, it’s Janus’s turn to speak.

“I.. I’m sorry.”

It feels so unnatural, coming from him. Come to think of it, has Janus ever said those words as truthfully as he attempts here? It hurts, but lifts a huge weight of his shoulders at the same time. Highlighted not in the slightest by Roman relaxing his expression towards him. Now that he’s said it once, it feels like he can’t help himself and words start spilling out of his mouth without him realizing.

“I’m sorry for… misleading you. I’m sorry for toying with you, provoking you.”  
And he liked doing it, even. Every word stings as it reminds him too much of a similar scenario. He can hear Virgil of the past distantly echoing in his ears, making him experience the panic and tension and vulnerability all over again. Along with the painfully fresh memories of the wedding’s aftermath.  
“I thought… that I knew what I was doing. Taking opportunities whenever I could. That it’d be the only way to make you understand.”  
Janus feels Virgil’s eyes looking at the side of his face, but he can’t bring himself to look his way. Instead, he keeps his focus on Roman. His legs start shaking under him, his throat feels like it’s burning.  
“But ultimately, it did more damage than I hoped to avoid.”  
Roman lets his shoulders down, gradually turning his back on Jules and his eyes noticeably lighting up. Just keep his attention, Janus thinks to himself, it seems to be working at least. What would Patton say at a time like this?  
“Let me try to make it up to you,” Janus tells him while methodically removing his right glove, even though both his hands still hurt to the extent he can hardly move them without flinching. As he sees the bandage Virgil applied from the corner of his eye, still sticky from his essence bleeding out, he holds his hand up to face Roman.  
“I’ll be better, I promise.”

Finishing his speech, Janus hears Roman letting out a soft incredulous laugh in response. Though different from back then, this one doesn’t result in him lashing out. Quite the opposite. Roman’s lips start shivering; he closes his eyes only to look back up at Janus again after a deep breath.  
“I’m sorry, too.”  
Roman turns to look at Virgil, squinting his eyes a little and his voice getting hoarse.  
“I really am…”  
Such an elated feeling. Despite Janus’s unfamiliarity with sentiments of this sort, he can’t help but feel oddly accomplished. In another way than usual, a sense of closure.  
Janus cautiously glances over at Virgil, who lets out a sigh of relief and responds to Roman with a small smile of his own. What’s he even expecting of him, anymore? Would this closure count for them, too?

Any time to ponder over it is quickly snatched away, by a mocking snort and chuckle resounding from the other side of the Imagination.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Pfft-”

Could they blame me for laughing, at this pathetic display of an apology? Roman isn’t actually gonna fall for this, is he?

“Roman, come now. Please don’t tell me you’re this stupid!”  
I let out a laugh as mockingly as I can manage. They have to believe I still hold more control in this space than it appears, which I’ll surely get back anyway. So there’s nothing I should worry about.  
But he’s just standing there, not even looking at me. He’s being the idiot for letting those two traitors fool him a second time.  
“Logan! I know you’re smarter than them. Why don’t you tuck yourself away for a moment, and I’ll be done in-”

“That’s enough, Jules.”  
Patton grabbing hold of my wrist catches me off guard. Judging from the sizzling his hand must be burning now, but he’s not moving an inch. Just keeps trying to intimidate me with that lame authoritative look.  
“You’re not in control anymore," Patton continues. "You need to tone it down and properly-”  
“I’m sorry, what was that? I thought you tried to not be as much of a strict dictator anymore.”  
I swiftly shove my wrist out of his grip. Footsteps approaching, as Logan starts joining in too.  
“I don’t believe I can uphold my end of the deal if you act like this, Jules,” Logan says scoldingly. “You’re causing a lot more harm than you claimed you would.”  
“Did you really think this would work without some collateral damage?” I shout back at him, mocking him with the same scolding tone he dared to address me with.  
“You’ve done enough harm, don’t you think?!” Virgil now begins shouting from across the field. Where the heck’s that scared angsty kid gone? What act is he trying to pull? It’s so bloody annoying. 

Despite the frustrations, this whole charade just makes me laugh.  
“So you’re all ganging up on me now? You think just going around accusing and shouting again will solve anything?!”  
Don’t lose your cool. Otherwise they’ll keep attacking. Act like it doesn’t bother you. But no matter how hard I try, I can’t keep my voice steady. All staring at me as if I’m at fault here. When all I try to do is call them out for their shortcomings.  
But very well. I’ll just find another way to make them listen.

Without a second thought, I grab Patton by his arm, pinching it firmly and pulling him in close.  
“You’re coming with me.”  
Before he has any time to resist, I pull him behind me and head further into the forest.  
I don’t care what they’re shouting at me, I’ll block it all out.  
I’m not giving up.  
They’ll come running after me, I’m sure of it.  
I can keep this going forever.  
If that’s what it takes, I’ll do this all over again.  
All.  
Over.  
Again.


	18. This Is Where It Ends

“Patton..!” 

Just as he was about to think they’ve won, Virgil is nailed to the ground as he watches Jules drag Patton along with him further into the forest. How does he keep letting him get away with this? Is this ever gonna end?!

“He can’t go far,” Logan calls out and runs up to the three of them, Remus slowly limping along still using his Morningstar for support. Just hearing Logan’s voice again, makes Virgil realize how much he’s missed having him around. Especially for these times he feels so defeated and ready to get into another panicked frenzy.  
“He must realize he’s lost his influence on us. It won’t be long now.”  
As Logan reaches Virgil, he gives him a comforting smile. One he used to give him during an attack too, but somehow this time it seems more sincere and natural than he’s used to with Logan.

“I know where he’s headed.”  
Everyone’s head perks up as Roman starts talking. His eyebrows slightly frowning, he looks straight towards the forest. As if he can feel Virgil’s glare in his neck, he turns around to look at him expectantly. Such an immense relief to no longer see that terrifying orange glare in his eyes, Virgil comes to think to himself. He doubts Roman’s problems will all be magically solved, he himself knows how inner demons tend to stick around for a longer time than you wish they would. But at least, they’ll be able to battle them together. That thought alone gives Virgil the resolve he needs to step forward.  
“Alright, let’s go. We’ll put a stop to this.”

Virgil walks up next to Roman, not wavering in his step as he expects the others to join him. Not hearing anyone behind him following suit, Virgil looks over his shoulder to see Logan worriedly glancing at Remus and Deceit.  
Remus has found a tree of his own to lean against, trying to keep up appearances but clearly shaking from the massive injury in his shoulder. Virgil didn’t even hear Deceit fall back earlier; sitting down against the cracked root of a tree, Deceit has his hands clamped together as he takes ragged breaths. Neither of them are fit enough to get moving.  
“Well you two,” Logan says sternly, crossing his shoulder. “I don’t believe you should-”

“We’re staying here.”  
Before Logan can finish his sentence, Deceit raises his voice to direct all attention towards him. He looks up to catch Virgil’s gaze.  
Virgil doesn’t know what to think of him now. He’s been so assured for such a long time that Deceit is only here to cause trouble, manipulate his way to victory. It’s what’s kept Virgil from letting the self-reflected anxiety in, since he left. But he won’t deny that he’s seen him trying. Deceit’s putting more effort into this then he’s ever seen him do. And he has to admit, never thought to hear an apology coming out of that snake’s mouth. Would it be wise to rely on him again, even if it’s just a little?  
“I’m sure, you’ll figure something out,” Deceit says with a faint smile, as if answering Virgil’s thoughts.  
Shoot. It stings; that phrase being one Deceit used to say to him all the time before.  
But it’s different now. They WILL figure something out. He’s sure of it.

Looking back at Roman, Virgil gives him a small nod after which Roman smiles in return. He takes a look back towards Remus and Deceit. Remus actively looks away from his brother, but even Virgil can tell his cheeks are getting red from blushing.  
Facing forward, Roman takes the lead and heads towards the forest in a decently fast pace. With Logan following Roman, Virgil joins in closely behind them.  
It’s the moment of truth. Walking between the trees that are slowly regaining their greenery and colour, he can feel Deceit’s gaze in his back. But instead of it burning, it’s like a push he needed to keep walking.  
As Virgil straightens his back, he quickens his pace.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It hurts, the force Jules is using to keep his fingers wrapped around Patton’s wrist. Surely to avoid him from breaking free. Now he won’t be able to get away if he wanted to.  
But the truth is, Patton actively chooses not to resist. Not for any backwards motive to join in Jules’s resolve or anything. The way Jules was acting earlier, there was something pitiful about it. He seemed genuinely scared, confused, panicked. And some sentiment inside Patton drove him to try and listen to him, find out what he wanted to show him. Even he knows it won’t be long until his power will have dissipated completely and he’s forced to admit defeat. It feels fair to hear him out while he still can.

Jules keeps mumbling under his breath, pulling Patton’s arm with firm tugs as they jog further and further into the forest. Patton is just about to wonder how long the Imagination will stretch out for, when Jules stops in his tracks and Patton peeks from behind him.  
They’re standing still in front of a tiny wooden cabin. Giant wooden pillars are used to build the house’s structure, though apart from that the cabin is as barren as they come. To top it off, tiny sparks of flames were smothering along the walls, slowly burning it black as charcoal.  
Is this his… room? Is this the only place of his own he’s been given in the Mind Palace?  
Jules lets go of him to turn around and face him full-front, the cabin gradually consumed in flames behind him. Somehow, Patton can’t help but feel bad for the display of hopelessness happening in front of him.

“You have to believe me, Patton! There’s no other way to make the others see the errors in their ways!”  
Jules makes swaying arm movements as he talks, his voice breaking every few seconds as the fire sizzles behind him.  
“Confrontation may be frightening, but it’s inevitable. You know how relieving it is to finally come out victorious after facing your demons, right? I’ll show you what needs to be done. And then we can finally resolve those long-burning issues! Just TRUST ME!”  
Though the more Jules screams, the more the flames start growing fiercer and enveloping his cabin more expansively. Patton feels the heat of the fire on his skin, but he needs to remain calm.  
Gosh, why are the others taking so long?  
“Jules, I don’t think you’re making clear-headed decisions right now,” Patton carefully says in response, holding his hands in front of him in a defenseless manner.  
“Getting angry and lashing out just makes things worse: I needed to learn that the hard way too! Don’t be afraid to be vulnerable, and-”

“I’M NOT WEAK!”

Jules yells, and the flames explode in a way that’s coming close to a raging wildfire. Patton’s heart starts beating faster again. He needs to instill reassurance in him as much as in himself. Don’t forget how much effort everyone’s been putting into this. Even Virgil agreed to work together with Janus if it meant getting Roman and Logan back. He can’t worry them and let himself be caught.  
Patton’s about to speak up, when he hears rustling footsteps approaching from behind. He turns around, and the sight of Roman, Logan and Virgil coming to his need takes away his nerves in an instant.  
Unfortunately, Jules isn’t ready to give in yet as he grabs his wrist again and pulls Patton in front of him. He grabs hold of his other wrist too, almost using Patton as a shield.

“Let him go, Jules! You’ve got nowhere left to run!”  
Virgil yells back at him, no fear in his voice. Patton can’t help but feel proud at how brave he’s become.  
“You still can’t see I’m doing the RIGHT thing? You’ve been lying to yourselves and ignoring your problems for ages. And now someone calls you out for it, and you go attacking ME?!”  
Still screaming from behind him, Jules is shaking Patton back and forth as he does. He still pinches incredibly firmly, almost drawing Patton’s essence with his nails digging into his skin. But Patton isn’t afraid, he can’t afford to. It’s a slippery slope if he starts panicking.  
That’s right, everyone’s here. Roman’s back, and Logan too. As if instinctively Patton shoots a glance at him. He doesn’t know what kind of face he’s making, but Logan immediately moves towards him as a response and grabs hold of his arm and Jules’s. With a strong tug, Logan manages to pull him away from Jules’s grip.

Patton falls forward a little, finding his footing as he looks up and locks eyes with Virgil.  
“Are you okay?” he asks concerned, a bit shaken up.  
“Don’t worry kiddo, I’m all good.”  
Patton grins at him with his usual cheery grin, and feels some tears pinching in his eyes. Hope he can start working on earning Virgil’s trust back now. Same goes for Roman.  
Patton attempts to make careful eye contact with him, to gage his stance regarding him. But when Patton looks his way, he sees Roman nervously staring at Jules and Logan and clasping his hands into a fist. 

He’s been through so much. And Jules has been with him throughout a big chunk of it. So thinking about it that way, Patton can sort of understand Roman’s reluctance to get rid of Jules completely. If he can just see that he won’t be alone if Jules is gone, that everyone’s here to have his back…  
Without thinking any more, Patton reaches out his hand towards Roman’s shoulder, which are shaking along with his anxious breathing.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Roman… you know I’ve always been here for you.”

Jules is still continuing his appeal, even though even he must realize by now he is losing his grip on him. Logan can feel Jules’s breath in his neck, hot and humid as he keeps repeating the same pleading arguments over and over again. The concerning thing is, Roman still seems conflicted to assert himself and turn his back on Jules completely.  
“All they’ve done in the past is hurt you,” Jules goes on to tell him, as Logan himself turns his back on him more and more to face Roman instead.  
“And I’ve never left your side, have I?”

The confidence in Jules’s voice is slowly fading away. Logan watches as Patton reaches out to put a hand on Roman’s shoulder, but Roman dodges it as he takes a few steps closer to Jules anyway. It begins to dawn on Logan that he is literally the only one standing in the way of Jules and Roman.  
Remarkably, Jules isn’t grabbing Logan or even touching him anymore. He hears the fires smoldering behind him, burning down Jules’s small cabin. He must be losing his grip on the Mind Palace soon. Just a little while longer.

“You’ll be all alone again! You don’t want that, do you?!”  
Jules is trying to speak for Roman, holding on to those desperate arguments like a broken record. Logan feels something burning up inside him, and it’s not Jules. An instinctive feeling of sorts, that he can’t describe or rationalize. But it seems to be telling him what to say. Would it be worth the risk to ‘listen to it’, whatever that entails?  
Almost unconsciously Logan shifts his gaze to Virgil and Patton. Virgil gives a firm reassuring nod, as Patton responds with a smile.  
Alright, as the saying goes: here goes nothing.

“Look around you, Roman.”  
As Logan starts talking, he sees Roman’s head perking up as if he gets snapped out of his conflicted state of mind. He blinks his eyes a few times, after which he takes a cautious look around him.  
“We all came to the Imagination for you. Even those two back at the clearing, recovering from their injuries. We came and endured it because we care about you. As much as Jules tries to convince you you’re alone, logically speaking you are not.”  
Jules keeps quiet, as Roman’s eyes start getting watery and his shoulders shaking.  
“I realize Jules may seem like a figurative safe haven, as someone who lets our doubts be heard and acts in our stead. He claims he knows what we ultimately want, but is all this ‘collateral damage’ as he calls it, really worth it? I’ll tell you now: it isn’t.”  
Roman looks down as a few tears start running down his face. Is that a bad sign, or good? Logan doesn’t know, but he’ll just keep talking. That’s the thing he’s good at, anyway.  
“Throughout all the dilemma’s we’ve been discussing, we have been learning about alternative and healthier methods to deal with issues of this caliber. Thomas has been learning too; trust me, I would know. And I also know it’s difficult to confront issues that make you appear…”

Logan feels his own throat getting drier, but he forces himself to not look away from Roman. As he pauses for a few seconds, Roman meets his gaze with some tears in his eyes. He can’t keep silent, he has to keep going.  
“…that make you appear vulnerable or… unstable. But by continuing to deny our own issues, by continuing to let Jules attack those around us as a coping mechanism, we won’t resolve anything.”  
His voice is beginning to crack, and Logan truly dislikes how insecure it makes him sound. As best he can, he attempts to articulate his words and keep his voice steady. Roman looks at him expectantly, his lips beginning to tremble.  
“We can’t deny what we’re feeling, Roman. Be it insecurities, doubts, anything.”  
Even though Logan is still looking straight at Roman, he imagines he’s talking as much to him as he is to himself. He throat continues getting drier, and he has trouble keeping his shoulders from shocking. As he takes a big gulp, Logan continues talking.  
“We feel what we feel. However irrational… or conflicting… it may appear. And that’s…”  
How silly. For the Logical Side to be getting emotional. But that’s the whole point, isn’t it?  
Taking a deep breath and closing his eyes for a moment, Logan opens his mouth again.  
“That’s okay.”

Without being conscious of it, Logan’s legs start moving for him. He is no longer aware of his surroundings much, as he walks up to Roman who appears close to a breakdown.  
Random memories of Patton comforting Virgil ring into his mind, from a time before Logan himself took care of Virgil’s attacks. The things Patton used to say, and how it baffled Logan as to how calm and empathetic he remained throughout all of it. Logan just needs to remember what he’s learned.  
“It must have been tough for you, huh?” he finally tells Roman, putting on the most sincere smile he can manage through his efforts to hold back his own tears.

The next thing he does, it isn’t what Logan would typically expect from himself. But as he learned, it’s what people do to comfort someone.  
He gives Roman a hug. A firm one at that. A bit clumsy as to where he’s supposed to put his arms, and slightly uncomfortable to feel another being touching him so closely. But he’s not letting go, not letting those doubts get to him. Trust that he knows what he’s doing.  
Though as he pushes back those doubts, he isn’t able to push back his tears. Same goes for Roman. After some time passes, he hugs Logan back and begins bawling. He takes a firm grip of the back of Logan’s shirt with both hands, burying his face on his shoulder.  
Logan doesn’t quite understand what he’s suddenly overcome with, what’s clogging up his mind to the extent he’s not able to think. At the same time though, it’s such a relief. To ‘let it all out’, as they say. Better not think any further, or he’ll get too embarrassed to even face the others afterwards.

Logan has no idea how long they’ve been standing for, or whether it really is as silent as he thinks it is. But as he feels Roman’s body stops shocking along with his sobs, as well as his own tears having stopped dropping from his cheeks, Logan carefully lets go of Roman. Still hiccupping a little, he wipes away his tears with the palm of his hands. Without realizing, Logan does the same.  
Carefully, he faces upwards to see Virgil and Patton both watching them, beaming with comfort and reassurance. As he remembers who he’s turning his back on, Logan waits just a few seconds more to hold onto this short-lived moment of reconciliation between the four of them.

Luckily, he didn’t have much reason to dread Jules anyway. As Logan turns around to meet his gaze, he’s actively looking away from them, slumped over a little as he fiddles pulling something out of his pants’ pocket.  
It’s Logan’s necktie.  
Exaggeratedly turning his head sideways, Jules stretches out his hand to hand the tie over to him. Logan grabs it on the other end, after which Jules drops it out of his hand immediately.  
“This is where it ends, Jules,” Logan says determined, putting on his tie. It feels good to have it back.  
“You think I don’t know that already?” Jules grumbles, turning his back on all of them without making eye contact again.  
Logan feels inclined to watch Jules as he walks into his burning shell of a room, the flames slowly enveloping him and the cabin completely until he starts fading away.

“I hate all of you.”

With that solemn and resentful line, the door of the cabin slams shut and along with Jules it literally goes up in flames. Not leaving any debris behind, a new area of the Imagination space comes into view as if it has always been like this. The surrounding trees and greenery start to flourish again, and Logan even hears the sound of a water stream in the distance.  
The four all stare at each other for a moment. It feels off, not having Jules’s presence dragging down the atmosphere in the air. There’s a lingering feeling of guilt still left within Logan, and as he looks at Roman’s expression he knows he must feel it too.  
Patton is the first one to break the silence.

“Well, what do you say we all start heading back?”

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“They should have been back already…” 

As he continuously rubs the burn marks on his neck, Janus notices he still has this hoarse tone in his voice as he speaks. His throat must have not completely healed yet. But considering the damage he’s received, he must have figured this might take a while.  
“Hmph, since when were you such a worrywart?” Remus jokingly scoffs at him, moving around his shoulder with his hand. Remus’s bleeding seemed to have stopped, and he’s able to get back on his feet again. Janus is still feeling dizzy, so keeping his eyes clothes he tries to concentrate on getting his energy back. Though the continuous grunting of Remus getting back in shape, plus his slight worries about Jules, are not helping.

“Easy for you to say.”  
Janus scoffs back at him, awaiting Remus making an inappropriate remark as he would normally do. But instead, he remains silent.  
“Come now, you can’t still be mad at me?” Janus sighs, as he rubs his hands across his forehead.  
“Nah,” Remus responds after a few seconds.  
“Seeing you beat up to a pulp is sweet enough revenge.”  
Cautiously lifting one of his eyelids, Janus peeks at Remus next to him. Who is playfully winking and sticking out his tongue at him. The aching pain from Janus’s burn wounds seem to have mostly subsided, aside from his considerable fatigue and blaring headache. Despite all that, he can’t suppress a slight chuckle.

“You do realize you took an enormous risk there?”  
Mustering up the determination to finally pop the question, from the corner of his eye he sees Remus titling his head at him in response.  
“You know what I mean, don’t play dumb.”  
Janus isn’t going to allow a half-baked answer this time. If all cards are on the table, same goes for Remus. He grumbles a little, but eventually complies to speak up.  
“What else was I gonna do? There was an opening, and I took it,” Remus shrugs, adding a little scorn towards Janus with that last remark.  
“He could have not unfused, you know? You would have been-”  
“Well so I took a gamble, but that’s how I like to go about it! C’mon Jan, still don’t realize that about me?”  
Remus is avoiding the question again. This time though, Janus decides to take a more sympathetic approach then the snarky remarks he’s used to exchanging with him.  
“It just comes to prove that he still looks up to you, in a way. In however small proportion that may be.”

And just like that, Remus doesn’t have anything to say. Meanwhile Janus has found the right amount of energy to get back on his feet, pushing himself up from the tree trunk he was leaning against. As he looks back at Remus, he looks quite flustered and darting his eyes across the floor. A pretty rare but amusing sight.

“Let’s turn the tables on you then!” Remus exclaims, and Janus immediately regrets bringing up Roman in the first place.  
“When it comes down to it, you’re just all bark and no bite, huh? Gotta admit, it is kinda cute to see your soft side every once in a while.”  
Judging from Remus chuckling, Janus isn’t able to hide himself blushing. Admittedly, it was embarrassing. But if everyone was putting in the effort to change, he didn’t feel like being accused for lagging behind. Besides, Virgil was watching.  
“Aw you didn’t want to disappoint Vee?”  
“Quiet.”  
Oh how Janus wished he was able to shut Remus up as he did the others. Unfortunately that trick never really worked on him. 

He doesn’t have to endure the embarrassment for long, as the two see four figures appearing from behind the trees. Jules is no longer with them. Their surprisingly relaxed voices start echoing through the forest.

“You can have that Nightmare Before Christmas poster from my room, by the way. If you still want it.”  
“Oh really? …Well, it wouldn’t be fair to just take it. How about we turn it into a singing contest instead! I still need an opportunity for a rematch of that outrageous Rap Battle with McSpecs, after all.”  
“You mean, you still need to be defeated in rhyme for a second time? Well, I’m not really interested in such a poster anyway. So no need for me to participate.”  
“Oh yeah, that sounds like fun! How about we try an acapella? C’mon Logan, I’m sure you’d be great at it!”

Usually this kind of chirpy banter would disgust him, and Remus as well actually. Instead, Janus just finds himself calmly looking over the scene as he can’t help but smile at the sight of them walking up to him and Remus.  
Janus catches Roman making eye contact with him, both of them fidgeting uncomfortably when their eyes meet. Roman shifts his gaze to his brother, who’s been following him non-stop since he came into view. Roman walks in front as the other three stay slightly behind, chuckling at Logan who also appears to be getting red.  
“So how did I…do?” Janus can hear Logan whispering, just loud enough for them to hear him. Even though he hasn’t got a clue what Logan is referring to, Janus assumes from Patton and Virgil’s encouraging reactions that Logan is no longer completely in denial. Well, baby steps.

In the meantime, Roman has walked up to Remus and taken a concerned look at his shoulder’s wound – though trying to hide his actual concern, of course. Interactions between the two brothers has always been a delight for Janus to witness.  
“No need to worry, ‘t is but a flesh wound! I’ve dealt with much worse!”  
“Sure you have,” Roman chuckles in response, looking away from him while raising his eyebrow. He slantly peeks back at Remus, though Janus can’t catch what face he’s making. Though his question certainly catches Remus off guard.  
“How did I do?”  
“…Huh?”  
“In the fight, I mean. I wasn’t really conscious, I guess. But I must’ve been tough to beat, wasn’t I?’”  
Roman scans Remus’s body, making sure to point out all the injuries still visible on him. Remus stares at Roman for a moment, seemingly lost in thought as to how he should answer.  
“I guess your reflexes have gotten better, and you're putting some more force in those swings ‘cause they’ve been soooo weak before!”  
Remus exaggeratedly tilts his head around in a mocking manner, but Janus can tell he’s in fact choosing his words consciously. To an extent, of course. Be that as it may, Remus won’t be able to hide from Janus that he’s secretly beaming from Roman simply coming up to him like this. Remus has always been cherishing those moments, after all.

“Well, why don’t you show me some of those attacks of yours next time?”  
Slightly blushing, Roman looks up to his brother expectantly as he asks that. Again, Remus is lost for words for a few seconds too long. Roman catches on and stutters something extra.  
“Just so I could show you how easily I could have beaten you!”  
Janus keeps on peeping in on their conversation, expecting Remus to shout something silly at him. So it surprises him that Remus just grins widely, an almost childlike grin beaming with excitement. Roman is taken aback as well, though Remus doesn’t give him much time to recover as he grabs his arm and starts dragging him back towards the forest.  
“Hit me with all you got! Bet you can’t recover from these attacks I’m about to slam you with!”  
“Hey, let me go! I’m not ready yet-”  
And off they go. Honestly, Janus missed seeing these kind of brotherly antics. Even though he’s probably going to regret saying that later.

“Maybe we should keep an eye on them?” Patton asks concerned, glancing in the brothers’ direction.  
“Leave that to me,” Janus responds. He already spotted looking over at Patton nervously, as if he wants to ask him something. So might as well give him the opportunity too.  
“Actually Patton, I may need your assistance on something.”  
Logan anxiously speaks up to Patton, who answers his gaze with a quizzical look. The two begin walking away towards the Imagination’s exit as Patton takes a final look back at Virgil, who’s the only one left besides Janus himself.

“Virgil?”  
“You go on ahead, Patton. I’ll catch you all later.”  
Virgil shoots a glance at Janus for a moment, leaving him the one to be caught off guard. As the two enter through the Imagination entrance and the two brothers are still bickering in the background, Janus feels he’s getting nervous now that it’s just the two of them.  
Unsure if Virgil wants to say something or he’s waiting for him to speak up, Janus takes the lead.  
“Virgil, I just wanted to tell you that..”  
“It’s fine. I got it, what you were trying to say before.”  
Janus feels his heart skip a beat, as Virgil said that. While still glancing at him frowning a little, Virgil reaffirms himself to stand up straight and not look away from Janus’s gaze as he continues speaking.  
“And well… I need some time.”  
“That’s alright, I understand.”

Some seconds of awkward silence pass. Tension continues to hang in the air, even though it starts evaporating ever so gradually. Despite knowing that it’ll be a long road to gain Virgil’s trust back, Janus feels like he’s made an important step in the right direction today.  
“But… what I wanted to say, just…” Virgil begins mumbling.  
Breaking away from Janus’s eyes, he tucks his hands in his pockets and his face gets red. 

Janus hardly finds himself speechless. He’s learned and trained in his way with words for years, and has prided himself in his knowledge on using convincing rhetoric.  
However, Virgil’s few words has his throat closing up, the corners of his eyes pinching as he takes away any possibility of mustering up a response. 

“…Thank you, Janus.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that is it!  
> It's been such a joy writing this fic, and I really hope you enjoyed reading it. I appreciate everyone tuning in for the new chapters and all the feedback. It's what inspired and motivated me to keep writing.  
> I would love to hear what your thoughts are on the story! Feedback is very much appreciated :)  
> Take care, and hope to provide you with some other fics soon!


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